Dr Light is Coming to Town
by Dr. Jerk
Summary: Long oneshot. Classic series. Dr. Light, with the help of his newest creation 'Reindeer Man', sets out to spread the joy of giving to children around the world. Of course, things won't always go as planned. Will Mega Man & friends be able to save the day?


**Author Notes:**

As a quick note to those about to read this fanfiction, please keep in mind that this fanfiction may seem lacking or rushed in some areas. This is due to the fanfiction having the deadline of Christmas day, and unfortunately I was unable to get a hold of a beta reader in time. I apologize for this.

Also, it should be noted I am still fairly new to the Mega Man series during the time I wrote this. I have done my studies on the series before beginning this, although there may still be a few errors that might otherwise contradict certain facts of the series.

And as a caution to those who are about to read, this fanfiction is also a rather long oneshot.

Thank you.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the Mega Man Series, nor do I own any of its characters, robots, themes, items or places. The Mega Man Series is copyrighted to Capcom.

* * *

**Dr. Light is Coming to Town  
**

It was white. A flurry, chilling white day in the futuristic city of Monstropolis. So frigid, in fact, that barely anyone wanted to step outside and preferred to keep to themselves in their towering homes, still baring a few damages from the antics of a certain insane scientist many years ago. No, not even the industrial or companion robots that a few managed to own had dared to emerge from the comforts of the inside, in fear that they would slip and fall into that freezing white stuff, which would just melt by their robotic body heat and potentially cause them to short-circuit or cause rusting later in life. Little did a few of them know was that it was snow, which also threatened to cover power generators and cause them to malfunction, causing more people to panic then they should, going to show how much mankind had grown reliant on machines these years. Perhaps one day a total war between humans and robots will break out, and will ultimately send a humanoid android into the past to kill several women with a shotgun. But until that fateful day, everyone was pretty content with their technology…

And content they were, even with all of the blundering snow falling from the heavens in all sorts of manner, which the citizens were clearly not used to since the city was normally very warm during all seasons. But there was certain magical thing about all of the snow falling. It was surely a reminder of the cold month of December, and a reminder to the most magical of holidays, Christmas. Yes, the very date that Jesus Christ was born. But hardly anymore cares about him anymore and forevermore he will celebrate his birthday alone, for people were too busy getting their last minute Christmas shopping done. Forcing themselves to bare the snow and coldness, people ran all over, most slipping on ice, as they hurried to get their gifts. Most not caring if they happened to trample someone to death or a robot to scraps to get to everything before it's all gone.

But this was hardly surprising, for it was December 24th, the very Eve of that special time of year! The Eve of the day when people would give gifts to friends and serve up their turkey dinner, only to find out that they've been chewing nuts and bolts and only then to finally realize that they've cooked a robotic bird, and of course, all of that noise, noise, noise. So obviously, the 24th was naturally the most busiest as people rushed to get their things that they should have gotten awhile ago, but alas they hadn't. And those afraid of rusting or short-circuiting had stayed home like the guard dogs they were.

But in short, it was chaotic out there.

Or at least, how a certain robotic mind had perceived as he gazed out a window that belonged to a distant laboratory, and every so often the perplexed boy would scratch his head in confusion as he tried to calculate what was going on. Why was this wintry month always the most busiest, and every year?

But alas, no answers could be computed, and he was left with no answers, to which he had sighed at in frustration that he couldn't figure it out at all.

"Mega Man!!!" A voice shrieked behind him, instantly making the blue bomber jump straight up and yelp, before landing on his feet and swiftly turning around defensively.

…It was just Roll, but she looked rather annoyed as she had held her hips, a feather duster in one hand, and had tapped her foot while glaring at him.

"I've told you over a hundred times! When are you going to stop leaving fingerprints on the window?" She asked as she pointed directly to the window that he had been standing at. It had been completely covered by frost before.

"Sorry," Her brother had responded. "I can't help it; I can't keep my eyes off of the world outside…"

"Oh, you mean those people running around to get to those places?" Roll had recognized, her voice and posture calming. "You go on about this every year. This month is always the busiest time of the year."

"Yes, but why exactly?" Mega Man had inquired further. "It's always been this time of year when the snow falls."

"Well, we've asked Dr. Light about it many times before," Roll had said as she turned to dust some more furniture, mostly chairs and tables that were conveniently placed inside the lab. "And every time, he didn't say a word about it."

"Almost like he was keeping it hidden…" Mega Man had added as he crossed his arms and thought er, computed back. She was right; Dr. Thomas Light had always seemed to avoid the question of why December was always the busiest.

And what's more, whenever he did avoid it, Light would always seem to smile to himself, which had been noticed a few times by his robotic children before. Just what exactly was he hiding? But Roll was not the least bit worried about it as she happily cleaned the dust off of more furniture.

"Speaking of Dr. Light…" A voice had perked up, bringing the attention of both sister and brother robots. It was Mega Man's faithful friend, Rush the dog, who was relaxing on a metallic bench in the center of the room.

"I haven't seen him around lately…" The robotic, observant dog had noticed as he momentarily stopped to sniff the air. Alas, he could not pick up a thing.

"He's probably still in his laboratory, remember?" Roll had reminded them, just as she had finished her dusting and begun to sweep the metallic floors with her broom. "He told us that he would be there all day."

"Oh, yeah!" Her blue brother had remembered. "He went in as early as 6:30 A.M., didn't he?"

"Yes," Rush had confirmed to his faithful friend and partner, and had then briefly stopped to calculate something. "…My built-in clock says that it's exactly 2:15 P.M. and 21 seconds."

"Gee, he's been in there an awful lot…" Mega Man had remarked as he glanced over to a large, metal door at the other side of his room. It was the entrance to their creator's lab, and he could also tell that the door had been securely locked.

Which could only mean, was that the Doctor was probably working on something very important, and did not wanted to be disturbed.

"Well, you know how Dr. Light is…" Roll said as she continued sweeping briskly. "Once he starts on a project, it's almost impossible to pull him away from it."

She then had suddenly stopped for a brief moment and raised her gaze in thought, tapping a finger against her chin. "Although now that you think about it… he _has_ been there for a very long time… He never even stepped out once…"

But as she said those very words, her eyes had popped out in realization. "Oh no! I just realized something! I rang the breakfast and lunch bell, but he never did come out! What if there's something wrong with him?! He usually has a healthy appetite!"

Immediately Rush had stood up on his metal paws, and had given Roll an awkward look. "You're worrying yourself…"

But Mega Man, also being the rash type he was known for, had also jumped in. "Roll, you may be on to something! Dr. Light normally doesn't take this long!"

Rush had quickly hopped off the bench and hurried to the two. "Please settle down you two; don't you remember what happened last week?"

But the brother and sister robots had not heard him. "What if he locked himself in and can't get out?! What if he's losing air to breath?! What if…"

"Please stop!" Rush yelped out and nervously bit the bottom of his iron lip.

"We gotta get him out of there!" Mega Man cried and had immediately turned and ran into the next room, which just so happened to be a storage room where Dr. Light had kept all of his robots' gear…

"No, wait…!" Rush cried and ran after him.

But unfortunately for the robotic pooch who had already attempted to warn them of the consequences, loud clashings and bangings of metal and of nuts and bolts being thrown around could be heard in the next room, followed by a loud clicking and beeping sound, as if something had just been installed…

And when Mega Man had came out of the storage room, the most that Rush and Roll could do was stare at him.

No longer was the 'blue bomber' blue, but he had now emerged in the bright appearance of dazzling yellow and creamy white. He reminded Roll of a lemon…

And replacing the small blaster of his right arm, was now a much larger and heavier cannon…

In fact, nobody even knew what it was that he had just equipped with. But no one had even stopped to ask about it; actually, no one even had time to ask about it! Without wasting another second, the reckless 'yellow' bomber had ran straight towards the laboratory door and rose his newly equipped cannon to fire at it.

"Don't worry Dr. Light, I'll save you!!" He cried out and had immediately fired a single blast!

A shriek of whistling air was heard as a speeding, yellow object was blasted out from Mega Man's equipped cannon! Roll's mouth had dropped and Rush's ears had quickly bent back as they eyed the speeding object that had literally blurred straight across the room as it rushed towards Dr. Light's metallic door in a zig-zagging pattern! Even Mega Man's eyes had greatly widened at such blinding speeds. But instead of going straight for the door like Mega Man initially thought it would do, since he had just randomly picked something to equip without much thought, the flying object had instead flew straight up into the air!

Mouths dropping even lower and eyes popping almost right out, the trio of robotic friends had immediately stood back in awe as they watched the speeding projectile go straight towards the iron ceiling, before skilfully turning around and had suddenly started to spin around in a large circle high up in the air, causing the three friends to rotate their heads rapidly as they watched the dashing rocket continue to endlessly spin around.

And they continued to watch the speeding object from where they stood, until Roll could not help but to face her brother and shout out at him, "Mega Man, what have you done?!"

"I… I… I don't know!" He stammered, unable to keep his eyes off of the moving rocket.

"Of course you don't know!" Rush had angrily barked at him. "I've seen that color before! Mega Man, that was one of Dr. Light's prototype weapons that he was still working on! It's not even complete, and you've just used it!"

"And-"

But before the dog could continue his small rant, the rocket had unexpectedly shifted its direction and was now making larger circles in the air, while occasionally swooping up and down. From above the heads of the trio, the yellow rocket had abruptly dived towards them, barely missing them as the three had managed to dash away in time, before the projectile had turned and began to make its rounds around the rest of the room. Now clinging against the wall with teeth clenched together, the three robots had watched in horror as the rocket had left the small circle it made and crashed through shelves, tables and the corners of walls, knocking over many gadgets and priceless items that Dr. Light had kept for years. Not a single thing that it came across had posed as an obstacle to it, and it had continued its violent flight as it proceeded to knock over tables and send chairs a few feet away.

And the trio of friends had dared not to move an inch.

Roll was quickly breaking down from the whole ordeal, and had slid down to the ground and ducked her head. "Oh no!! What are we going to do?!" She cried.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!!" Mega Man had also cried out in a panic.

"C'mon, we have to do something to get rid of this rocket!" Rush had yelped out at them. "We need to direct this rocket out of here!"

"But how?!" Roll had asked.

Quickly, the robotic dog had scanned across the room and searched for a possible way to get the rocket out of the building. Of course, they could have just destroyed it, but the consequences could be worse if they did that. Then within a few seconds, Rush had saw it.

"That window!" He said as he straightened himself into a pointing posture. "We can allow the rocket to go through it!"

"But will it really go outside?!" Mega Man inquired.

"Try anything!!" Rush barked.

Following the suggestion of his faithful friend, Mega Man had quickly dashed for the closed glass window, making sure that he dodged out of the way of the yellow rocket's destructive and random path. Upon reaching the window, he had immediately noticed that the window was locked and he had quickly began to fondle with the locks in a panicked hurry, trying to unlock the window as quickly as he could.

And fortunately, he did managed to unlock the locks and open the window wide open, which had brought a smile of relief to his face…

"DUCK!!" Roll and Rush had screamed.

Reacting without a second of delay, Mega Man had immediately ducked straight to the ground, and almost within that split-second, a whizzing sound of air was heard and Mega Man could feel what felt like a strong gust of wind flash above his backside.

…And then, all was quiet…

That is, all except for the sounds of leftover shards of valuable items falling off of shelves and onto the hard floor. Cautiously, Mega Man had slowly stood up and turned to face the state of the room behind him. He did not say a word, not even Roll and Rush who had also taken the time to stare at the horrible wreckage. It was a complete mess, objects and furniture laid all over the ground and dust was scattered everywhere. Perhaps Roll was taking this the most hard after hours of cleaning, but everyone equally knew what was going to happen next, and they all feared the very thought of it…

But until then, all they could do was stand around and look on in awe. Turning around to silently face the open window, Mega Man had peered out into the snowing outside and kneeled against the metal sill of it. The flying rocket that he had just deliberately fired was now quite a bit a distance away, and could no longer be seen nor be heard…

"…I wonder where it went…" He murmured to himself.

Far off from Dr. Light's laboratory building, stood various stores, some small some large, but each had shared the common similarity of last minute sales, which people and a few robots alike were hurrying to before the day ended. And quite busy the area was, for the streets were packed with citizens rushing to and fro. And among them, who had just stepped out of one of the larger shops, was a large, hulking robot. But not just any kind of large robot, but the orange and black Bomb Man. And in his full arms were boxes, supplies and the black bomb-like object that he was often seen dragging around. And he was happily whistling a small tune to himself.

"This is perfect!" He exclaimed proudly to himself, trying to be careful about where he stepped as the stacked boxes in his arms were clearly blocking his view. "Sure, I may have literally spent every single zenny I had, but I got some wonderful gifts for my friends, some neat things for myself and…"

But then the humongous robot had stopped to a halt, something far off in the distance had caught his attention and carefully he tilted his head up into the chilly clouds above him.

…And could see what appeared to be a yellow dot flying in the sky… But he could hear its whistling sound very clearly…

"What is that?" He asked himself, raising a metal eyebrow.

But as he kept on mindlessly starring at it, the speeding object had grown closer and closer as it zoomed across the sky, and could be heard much more clearly… But it wasn't just flying by like it did miles ago, but was apparently finally losing its momentum and was heading towards Bomb Man… And by the time he realized it, it was too late and his eyes had widened and his perplexed expression had turned into a horrified frown.

"Oh, sh-"

Mega Man, Roll and Rush were still standing around amongst the huge mess that the rocket from earlier had caused, eyes all glued to the floor in shame as they each recollected their thoughts and deduced what exactly had happened. Why, not even a single one of them had barely noticed the brief rumble that was caused by the large blast that was comparable to a nuclear explosion in the far off distance in the market streets, which were soon quickly followed by loud alarms and panicked beepings of cars. All they could do was just stand there and wait for the inevitable. Dr. Light would soon come out, and they would each have hell to pay. Especially Mega Man, seeing as he still had the unnamed prototype weapon equipped to himself.

"…We're dead…" Roll had whined.

"Mega Man…" Rush had growled at his friend. "Don't you remember what happened last week? This was exactly the same as before!"

"I'm sorry, I-"

But then the door to Dr. Light's lab had suddenly clicked and slid open, interrupting Mega Man in the process.

Dr. Light had stepped out, clearly alarmed. "What is going on-"

But had then immediately ceased when he was met with the state of the room, and his mouth had dropped. His three creations had sadly rose their gazes from the ground and eyed their creator with guilt in their expressions, but Dr. Light had hardly noticed them and seemed more focused on the huge mess in the room. And to think, this thing had happened before not too long ago! Blinking in disbelief, Dr. Thomas Light's arms had trembled as he dug his right hand into his left coat pocket, and pulled out a brown pipe and had quickly popped it into his mouth concealed by his fluffy, puffed out white beard. Then almost as soon as he had came out, he had immediately stepped back into his laboratory and the door had shut closed, leaving the three robots perplexed.

"…What, what just happened?" Roll had asked.

"I expected to be punished?" Mega Man had added.

"Give him time to relieve his stress…." Rush uttered. "He'll be back anytime soon…"

And so they had patiently waited for the doctor to come out anytime. This wasn't the first time that this had happened before, and they knew that they would probably be given many harsh duties as their punishment, especially Mega Man. But they knew that it could not be avoided, and so they stood around in wait. Seconds turned to minutes, a little longer than when they would normally expect Dr. Light to emerge from his lab. Why hasn't he came out yet, they all wondered. In fact, the doctor had been unusual for nearly the whole day…

It was approximately eleven minutes since Light had gone back in.

"This is odd…" Roll remarked. "Usually he-"

"Oh ho ho ho ho!"

A hearty laugh was unexpectedly heard, expanding the eyes of the three robots in surprise and confusion. Immediately their gaze had followed the source of the laughter, until their eyes had stopped at the door to Dr. Light's lab.

There he was, Dr. Light standing in front of his opened lab door. But there was something very drastically different about him. Instead of his white coat and polka-dotted tie that he normally wore on a daily basis, he was now completely donned in a bright array of red and white. Covering him from nearly head to toe, he was noticeably wearing a large red coat, which did no effort to hide his large belly, with matching pants. And around the cuffs of the sleeves was what appeared to be white fluff, as puffy as his large beard was. He even wore what the robots had identified as a red nightcap, with a white pompom at the end. And he wore a black belt and heavy boots.

And possibly the most surprising new thing about him, was that he no longer seemed to be angry at all.

"Ho ho ho ho!" He continued to laugh deeply, and all the others could do was watch him in awe, daring not to say anything to their creator, but merely observe his odd behaviour.

He continued to laugh until he eventually stopped, and proceeded to wipe away a tear from his eye from laughing too much.

"Oh ho… I cannot be angry at you three for long…" He simply said, apparently forgiving them for their huge screw up.

"_Although, your messes every month or so are a pain in the ass…"_ He silently thought to himself.

"Dr. Light! What is wrong, why are you dressed like that?!" Mega Man immediately questioned his creator.

Dr. Light had briefly laughed again. "Mega Man, Roll, Rush… I've been planning you a surprise for quite awhile now…"

He the also given the mess a quick glance and raised an eyebrow, clearly not amused at it. "…And although you have messed up half of my lab for the 104th time or so…"

He turned his attention back to his three creations, now smiling again. "…Well, we all make mistakes. And I am not going to let this mishap spoil the surprise that I've been working on. This season is far too important to let it be ruined."

The three robots still looked confused.

"Well, what do you think?" He had asked them. "Does my costume look accurate enough? I'm really hoping that it will look good this Christmas day."

The three robots had tilted their heads, appearing to be even more perplexed than ever before.

"…Dr. Light, what's 'Christmas'?" Mega Man had asked.

"What, you all don't know what Christmas is?" Dr. Light looked a little surprised.

The robots had shook their heads no.

"Does it have something to do with all of the people hurrying to shops outside?" Rush had curiously asked.

"…Well, now that you mention it… I do recall you three asking me about the citizens the previous years…" Dr. Light had recalled, as he placed a thumb against his chin in thought.

"_Though, I'm surprised you three hadn't noticed sooner. It's mentioned on billboards everywhere, literally…"_ He had also thought to himself, and quickly rolled his eyes.

"Christmas," Dr. Light had knelt down to them to explain. "Is a holiday that occurs on the 25th of December. It is a very special time when family and friends alike come together for bonding and to appreciate each other…"

"And…" He had resumed.

His explanation of the wintry holiday had continued, filling the robots with curious thoughts that had brought up more questions. For a good several minutes or so, Dr. Light had given a brief summary of the holiday's origin, how people celebrate it and the 'spirit of giving', which had answered their questions of why so many people outside were rushing about, they were doing last-minute Christmas shopping. He had even told them about the various myths and tales of the holiday season, and explained just what he was dressed up as, old Saint Nick himself. But these were not the only things, for soon enough Dr. Light had found himself rambling on about more details of the holiday season, and the three robots had intently listened to every word he had to say. At first the trio had merely only listened with blank stares and occasionally nodded, but as Dr. Light continued his explanation of this 'magical' season, awe and amazement had been loaded into their memory blanks. Mega Man's once confused expression had then turned into a small curious grin, and even the naturally curious Rush had begun to wag his tail. But Roll, well she was evidently the most impressed at all! A large smile had grown on her face, and with every word their creator had spoken, her already large eyes had grown wider and sparkled with great interest.

"…And that is what it is." Dr. Light had concluded.

"Wow Dr. Light, I would have never imagined…" Said Mega Man. "But it sounds very nice."

"Oh yes, it sounds superb!" Roll had exclaimed and hopped up in glee. The others just silently looked at her.

"It does sound very interesting!" Rush had also agreed.

"So Dr. Light, is this your surprise, dressing up as 'Santa Claus'?" Mega Man had asked the bearded scientist.

Dr. Light's eyes had twinkled.

"Not quite," He had told them, which had immediately made the robots tilt their heads yet again.

"This is only half of the surprise."

"What do you mean, Dr. Light?" Roll had asked, another curious smile growing as she asked this.

"Well, I believe that it's about time to reveal him to you three." Said the doctor.

"Him?" Inquired the puzzled Mega Man.

Dr. Light had smiled as he turned back to his lab, its door still wide open. "Come inside and see." He told them.

And immediately the three had followed their creator into the smaller laboratory room, which obviously held more of Dr. Light's equipment and obviously was a lot more cleaner, not to mention that the walls and floors were illuminated by the far brighter domed-lights from the ceiling. It was not often that the three were allowed in Dr. Light's personal lab room, and so they all knew that they were going to be in for a surprise, which they had all anticipated; especially the constantly grinning Roll who had came in with a spring in her step. And everyone had wondered just what this surprise could be.

And then, the group had halted, stopping in front of something that Dr. Light had led to, which he had stepped aside from to allow his robots a better view. And immediately the three robots' eyes had expanded widely again.

"Here he is." Dr. Light had introduced, gesturing his hand to it.

The three curious robots had leaned further for a closer look at it. Sitting calmly within the small, glowing podium in the corner of the lab, was a brown robot, one that the trio had never seen before in their life. It appeared small, barely the height of a medium-sized dog, and was definitely animal-like in appearance and structure. But it didn't look like any kind of generic animal; rather it had traits of a deer or a goat, as it had strong, black hooves and what appeared to be tall antlers that twisted upwards. But probably the most prominent appearance about it was that it had a red light bulb for a nose, which glowed a very bright red light. It was even wearing red reins on its body, with small silver jingle bells attached to it. The trio of robots had looked at the patient creature with amaze, and it didn't seem to mind them at all. Until…

"Hello! Merry Christmas!" It said with a rather peppy voice. The robots were not expecting it to suddenly speak out, and jumped back a little. Dr. Light had chuckled to himself.

"Let me introduce you to Reindeer Man, my newest creation that I've been secretly working on for years." Dr. Light had introduced him.

"But I sometimes call him Rudolph too." He said with affection and gently patted the reindeer robot's head, which it seemed to like.

"Hello, hello!" Reindeer Man had happily continued.

"Why, hello to you too!" Roll had greeted him and waved. Rush had happily barked and wagged his tail. Mega Man had also quickly said hello to the new robot too.

…But had then glanced back over to Dr. Light. "He's great, Dr. Light. But I don't get it, why is he called Reindeer _Man_?"

Dr. Light chuckled. "Oh, you'll see why."

He turned to face his newest creation again. "Reindeer Man, show them your bipedal form."

Obeying his creator without saying a word, the quadruple robot had suddenly stood up onto his hind hooves, much to the surprise of his sibling robots. But instead of ending right there, his brown, metallic plates that covered his body had also loosened and shifted themselves, and had revealed his oddly muscular inner build from within. The plates continued to move and shifted in different places, until finally the once animal-like robot was now in the appearance of a gray humanoid robot, with armour-like brown plates covering his arms and legs. And of course, the change had kept his red light bulb nose and displayed his tall antlers proudly.

The other robots' mouths had dropped. Reindeer Man was one of those transforming robots!

"Transformation complete." The now humanoid robot had informed, and had resumed to standing still.

Dr. Light had held his hands, smiling approvingly at his new creation, and his other robots had continued to stare at the new machine in awe. None of them could completely change their shape. Sure Mega Man could equip new weapons, and Rush could alter himself into a jet, coil or even a motorcycle, but none of these could be compared to Reindeer Man's transformation. They were equally all amazed. It's no wonder that the doctor had spent so many years on him…

But there was still another thing bugging Mega Man.

"He truly is amazing!" He exclaimed. "…But Dr. Light, how come you designed a holiday-themed robot? Is he going to work in the snowy woods?"

Dr. Light's eyes had only twinkled again.

"It is definitely about time that I've told you about my plan that I've had for years now." He said, and the others had nodded again.

"Christmas is a very special time for family and friends alike," He had begun.

His smile had turned into a small frown. "But there are some very unfortunate people out there who do not have a family or friends. Some don't even have homes or money for food."

"And sometimes, those people are children."

"Oh my…" Roll had muttered.

"And there are millions of people like them, millions of people who try so hard just to survive. Sometimes they don't even have time to stop and smile…" Dr. Light had sadly continued.

"But fortunately, there are a lot of people trying their best to help them out as much as they can. But as much as we would like it, we cannot help every single person out there."

The doctor had sighed as he resumed. "Even with our advancements in funding and technology, we cannot possibly provide help for everyone, but only a couple at a time."

"As an accomplished scientist, I have more than the average person. But those poor people out there have nothing. And as I thought more and more about it, the worse I had felt." He said.

"And so, many years ago, I had decided to set a goal for myself! A goal that I would help bring smiles on those who needed the most, the poor children out in the world," The doctor had stated with great determination.

"But I also wanted it to be very special, something that would make them smile for a very long while."

"And so," He turned to face Reindeer Man and carefully placed a hand on the robot's hard head. "I had decided that I would be like Saint Nicholas. And so I had immediately set work on Reindeer Man for years in secret. And when he is completed, he will pull a small sleigh to the developing countries, and I will deliver gifts to the children there."

The three robots gasped in surprise. "Really?!" They asked.

Dr. Light was back to smiling again. "Yes! You know how I am, once I start a project, I'm determined to finish it."

"And best of all, Rudolph here has almost completed his testing. I'm hoping that this year is when we can finally make the big trip!"

"Wow, really?! This year?!" The others had exclaimed, and Dr. Light had nodded.

"Wow…" Mega Man had uttered. "Dr. Light, this is all so very remarkable!"

"Yes!" Roll quickly added. "I'm very impressed!"

Rush was wagging his tail. "I'm still not sure what 'Christmas' is, but this is very nice of you, Dr. Light!"

"Thank you," The doctor had said warmly. "And this means a lot to me…"

"So!" He said, nearly puffing out his chest. "I hope you've all been surprised!"

"Of course we are!" They replied.

"Very well, then I suppose we shall-"

But then Roll had suddenly interrupted Dr. Light. "Dr. Light! I have a surprise for everyone too!"

"Oh?" He asked curiously, ignoring that she had just rudely interrupted him. "What is it then?"

"I am going to throw a Christmas party!!" She exclaimed excitedly and began to hop around.

"Whaaaat?!" Everyone else had asked.

"A Christmas party!" She repeated wildly. "This time of month is so magical, isn't it? Well I think we should celebrate it with a big bash! I can cook all sorts of nice treats, and put up many decorations of red and green…"

"Of course I'll have to clean up first, but also…"

Roll had continued to ramble on about her ideas for the 'big celebration', and had even begun to enlist the people she wanted to invite. Blinking, Mega Man and Rush could only watch her and occasionally give each other a puzzled look. But Dr. Light had only lightly giggled to himself as he stroked his beard. Maybe he had filled Roll's head with a little too much…

"That all sounds very nice and fun," Dr. Light had told her when she had finally finished. "But are you sure you would have the time to host it?"

"Huh? What do you mean?" She asked.

"Today is the 24th of December," Dr. Light had explained to her. "It's the Eve of Christmas. Tomorrow is Christmas Day."

"Huh?!" She exclaimed.

"I'm afraid so. There's simply no time to host one right now this suddenly." He said to her, nodding.

"But… hmm…" Roll began to think.

"Well… I wanna be determined like you too!" She suddenly exclaimed, puzzling the others.

"If Dr. Light had put his heart into something, then so can I! I am sure that I can clean, cook and prepare things fast enough just in time!" She confidently said.

"And I will host it this midnight! Technically speaking, the party will be on Christmas Day! I'm sure of it!"

Dr. Light had began to giggle again and Mega Man had only rubbed the back of his head while Rush tilted his ears. They didn't know Roll could be this determined…

"Well, if you can set it all up in time, I'm sure you can have your own Christmas party." Dr. Light said to her, and Roll had smiled with excitement gleaming in her eyes.

But it was then that Mega Man had just realized something. "Hold on Dr. Light. If I remember correctly about the myth of Santa Claus, won't you be heading out to deliver the gifts once it's midnight?" Roll's smile had suddenly turned into worry.

"That is right," Dr. Light confirmed. "I will be heading out this midnight with Reindeer Man."

"Oh…" Roll said sadly. "Then you won't be able to attend… Maybe I should just cancel this…"

"Nonsense!" Dr. Light disagreed. "I may be unable to attend, but that shouldn't mean that you should put off your party. This will practically be your first Christmas to all of you, so I think you all deserve a chance to celebrate it."

"Really?" Roll asked, hope in her eyes.

""Certainly. I do not mind it at all. Go on, have your fun!"

"Oh, thank you Dr. Light!!" Roll hopped again.

Dr. Light smiled and then turned to the other room, where his smile immediately vanished. "But I do mind the mess in the other room. I think you should clean it all up first…"

"Right!" Roll said with determination, and had even saluted. "I'll be right on it!"

And immediately she had ran out the door, leaving everyone in the dust as she hurried to clean up the place as quickly as could. And the others couldn't help but smile sheepishly. And as for Dr. Light, he kept on grinning happily.

"_This Christmas is going to be perfect…_" He thought to himself. "_I'm sure that nothing will go wrong…_"

* * *

The city of Monstropolis kept on being busy as it ever was for everyone who lived or visited there. More stores kept racking in the goods as more and more people came in to purchase their last minute gifts, other people hurried about outside as they rushed to put up the last of the decorations, and everyone else was probably busy wrapping the gifts in pretty paper and ribbon or otherwise making sure that everything was nice and ready for the big day tomorrow. During this day, there was no such thing as 'rest', and for hours, the streets will always keep its constant hustle and bustle.

…However, not everyone was preoccupied getting everything ready for tomorrow. No, believe it or not, there was actually one person, just seemingly one person, who was not keeping himself busy at all. Far, far away from Monstropolis, cleverly hidden away from the rest of the world, was a tall structure that appeared to have just been newly built, except the other side of it was merely half-finished. And not a single soul, other than those working on it, knew that this single building had existed here. No one had even noticed its uncanny resemblance of a white skull. If they had saw it, they would have probably just thought it was a snowy mountain…

Deep within the dark, technologic corridors of this very structure was something… or rather, someone, who people would not have expected to be here, for they were sure that _he_ was somewhere else locked away in an even darker place for all of eternity. But no, they were wrong. In the largest of the unfinished castle's rooms, with but a single table and a comfy chair, sat a very familiar character whom you've probably guessed by now already.

He sat there, quietly and ever so still, with a small cup of piping hot tea in his hand, and occasionally he would take a small sip from it.

"Humph… This tea tastes… bitter…" The moustache, balding scientist, Dr. Wily, had muttered as he sat calmly on his chair…

"It tastes just like defeat!!" He screamed, nearly jumping out of his seat, and had thrown the whole cup and its contents at the ground and watched it shatter.

…Yes, Dr. Wily had returned. Long ago, he had been defeated by none other than Mega Man for the hundredth or so time again, the times he had been bested were now beyond countless, and he had been arrested and sent straight to his all too familiar cell room that he had grown accustomed to by now. But as always, the desperate and insane scientist had always been trying to think of new ways to escape and for his wishful revenge. Normally the doctor would be freed from his prison by several of his remaining robot henchmen, and then immediately cause havoc afterwards. But this time was different. Dr. Wily no longer had robot henchmen from before to free him, and thus he had to rely on his own cunning for his escape. Except if there was anyone who knew of how he escaped, they would probably not consider it very cunning or original at all. For the time he had spent in the big house, Dr. Wily had often been preoccupying himself with a certain book about a prison and its jailers. Little did the scientist knew, was that reading the book would give him an idea. And so the 'brilliant' scientist had gone along with it, to secretly crawl through a rather disgusting drain pipe, one that flushed toilet water would flow to, and after many hours of getting himself slobbered and stained, he had finally managed to get out into the outside world. But instead of immediately going to cause trouble like he normally would whenever he escaped from jail, he had decided to play things calmly and actually keep himself hidden. And so, here he was, in the comforts of his hidden castle, and no one but himself knew of his whereabouts where he could relax for once in his life. But at this very moment, he was still rather ticked off as usual.

He fumed, inhaling and exhaling sharply. He hated the taste of bitterness, it just reminded him far too much of his stressful past. But amazingly, his anger had soon dropped and no longer was his head bulging. But just then, from a very short distance away, he could hear the loud clanking of footsteps, bringing his attention. And immediately his anger had returned to him.

He swiftly stood up and spun around on his feet to face the source of the sound, two humanoid robots in the distance that were carrying tons of bricks in their arms.

"Why haven't you two finished yet?!" Wily demanded of them.

Just having recently emerged from an entrance to this room, stood two humanoid robots of an average adult human height, and very much so like the kinds of robots that Wily and Light had often liked to build. Meaning that these robots had a very human like appearance, but like most of Wily's preferred robots, they had both shared their own traits that made them an individual.

The first of them, was probably the least human-like. Rather he looked very much like a gigantic walking cellphone with limbs and had a digital face on the screen. He even had a few buttons on the front of him, mostly labelled with numbers 0 to 9. But as bizarre as the first robot looked, the second one was perhaps just as equally strange too. The other robot was a lot more human-like in appearance, except that he most noticeably had a pom-pom shaped helmet for a head that was yellow. And in addition, his body was extremely skinny and he had leaf-shaped plates covering his hands. He looked very much like a yellow dandelion weed. Strange as they were though, they were definitely under control of Dr. Wily, who didn't cared much for appearance. He only cared if they were practical enough. Especially if he deems them 'fit enough' to destroy his arch-enemies, or so Dr. Wily would like to hope so… And their names? Well, they were befittingly called Phone Man and Dandelion Man, respectively.

At the sound of their master's calling, the two had immediately ceased in their tracks and turned their groggy eyes to the doctor, as if they were tired. Granted robots never need to 'sleep', but these two robots were always wearing what appeared to be sleepy eyelids in their expressions. Dandelion Man had even briefly stopped to yawn for a second. And Dr. Wily had just crossed his arms and tapped his foot as he impatiently waited for their answer.

"But Master, we're following your orders… We're going as fast as we ca-" Phone Man tried to explain.

"No! You two are not working fast enough!" Wily snapped back.

"But Master…" Dandelion Man had whined. "We've worked on your base for two long weeks, and your castle is already half finished!… Can't we just take a rest now?…"

"A long one?…" Phone Man added in.

"Breathers, breaks and rest!…" Wily spat in annoyance. "Is that all you can think of?! You've been asking me that a million times!!…"

Making a face in disgust, the irritated doctor had swiftly turned around and immediately had taken quick steps as he approached a large window not too far from them, and stopped in front of its glassy surface. But he could barely see anything outside, for it was completely blocked by the cold frost outside. The two robots had just stood there and silently watched him, albeit still having the thoughts of resting in their minds.

When Dr. Wily had been defeated yet again by Mega Man not too long ago, everyone was pretty sure that Dr. Wily no longer had any remaining robots to call his own. And that was very much the case, seeing as he had to use his own cunning in his unoriginal escape, and without the aid of robots. So if one were to know that Dr. Wily was now in possession of these two robots, Dandelion Man and Phone Man, one would probably be very surprised and wonder how Wily had gotten these two. But his possession over these two robots was about as unknown to the general public as how he had managed to escape from jail. For you see, dear reader who just so happened to have stumbled upon this piece of literature, these rather absurd robots were never under the ownership of Dr. Wily in the very first place. When Dr. Wily had finally made his 'great escape' and managed to keep himself hidden, he was in desperate need of new robots but didn't had the materials at the time. But luckily for the desperate scientist, he had heard about a fellow scientist in the area, whose name Wily hadn't the foggiest idea of, and that this scientist had two robots of his own, the very Phone Man and Dandelion Man. So obviously Wily had approached them with the intention of stealing the robots for himself. But instead of the other scientist desperately trying to protect his robots, he had instead begged to Wily to take them off of his hands, much to Wily's surprise. And of course, Wily had gladly taken them away and immediately reprogrammed them to follow his every command. But little did Wily know, was that the two robots seemed to exhibit a common behaviour trait; laziness. Indeed, the robots seemed incredibly lazy and even when forced and threatened into work, they still complained of their lack of energy and talked amongst themselves of how much they would prefer to just lay around all day. Apparently Wily was so hasty that he had not even bothered to study the robots before taking them. Dandelion Man was created to remove pesky weeds out of gardens, but instead he prefers to lay around all day and soak up rays of sunshine. Whereas Phone Man was designed to answer calls and record messages, but preferred to talk to his friends nearly 24/7 and increased the phone bill quite a bit, much to his creator's dismay. These two robots barely liked to do any sort of work, and as Wily thought about it, it was no wonder why they were practically given away to him. But beggars can't be choosers, he needed robots and he wasn't going to part with them, despite how much they annoyed him.

And as for Wily's new castle, where had this one come from? Not only was the poor doctor robot'less at one point, but his old castle had also been completely demolished after his last brawl with Mega Man. But Dr. Wily had only just escaped a few months ago, and already his castle was just about half-finished. How did this one appear so quickly in such a timely fashion? As unrealistic as it was, most robots have a 'natural' ability to be able to complete large buildings within weeks, as long as there is material around, which they can always go out to quickly find more of. But with Dandelion Man and Phone Man, being the lazy selves they are, were obviously a lot more sluggish with their carpentry work, and so Wily had to pester them to resume 24/7. If they weren't so lazy, his castle probably would have been complete by now. But despite their lagging work, Dr. Wily was actually glad to have a warm place to stay in now, although he refused to show his appreciation it in the slightest…

"…How many years has it been?…" Dr. Wily muttered to himself as he eyed the frost, eyes squinting as he thought back.

Dandelion Man and Phone Man had leaned in to listen more clearly.

"Countless times… I've already lost count…" The doctor had answered himself.

"All I know is that every single time I've been bested by that Mega Man and Dr. Light!!" His calming stance was suddenly cancelled out by a scream of hate, causing the two robots to fearfully sink into their boots, or feet as it were.

"But no matter what, I refuse to accept defeat! One day I will discover the true formula that will destroy Mega Man! Then nothing will stop me from reaching my ultimate goal!!" The loud man had sworn.

He turned around to face the two robots, now expressing his calmer side again. "… And that's why I need you two to finish my base as soon as possible. The sooner it is complete, the sooner I can work, and the sooner that I can destroy Mega Man once and for all!"

The two robots nodded swiftly. "Yes, master…."

"Good…" He had told them, but as much as he would like it to happen, he just knew that the two would be goofing off as usual.

Sighing to himself as he thought of that, the scientist had turned around again, ignoring the presence of his two robots for now, and headed directly for a large computer monitor of around six feet in size with a keyboard of around several thousand keys on it. Immediately Wily had begun to punch in several numbers and letters in a rapid pace as the robots behind continued to watch his haste.

"Speaking of enemies, I wonder how mine are doing…" The doctor had grumpily muttered to himself.

As soon as he had finished and pressed in the 'Enter' key, beeping sounds of what sounded like slow-as-hell dial up had ran as the screen flickered into view, until finally an image as clear as crystal became visible. What was on the screen was a live screening of Dr. Light's very own lab.

"Good, nobody had noticed my spy cam ye-" Wily had murmured as he laid his head against his hand.

…But then suddenly his eyes had widened and immediately the doctor had stood up straight and slammed his hands against the keyboard's flat surface. He could not believe what he was seeing, or hearing! In the very corner of the laboratory, surrounded by Dr. Light and his other robot creations, was a brand new robot! Hardly noticing that Dr. Light was in a Santa costume, Wily had eyed the deer-like robot with extreme curiosity, but had stepped back in alarm after witnessing it instantly transform into a humanoid version of itself by the command of Dr. Light.

"_Transformation complete." _

"_He truly is amazing! …But Dr. Light, how come you designed a holiday-themed robot? Is he going to work in the snowy woods?"_

Dr. Wily's eyes were twitching and the liver spots on his bald scalp had bulged. A horrifying expression of grinding teeth and of twisted wrinkles had came to his face, and his shoulders shook with great intensity. He just could not believe this…!

"That damn bastard!!" Wily shouted as he banged a fist against the keyboard, subsequently shutting off the monitor in the process.

The angry scientist had spun around, revealing his frightening face to the robots, which in turn had made them drop the bricks they were carrying and huddle next to themselves in fear.

"How dare he?!" He ranted. "Here I am, barely with any robots, and there he goes making more robots!"

Wily had stomped across the room, apparently heading for an entrance blocked by a humongous metal, sliding door to his left.

"He probably thinks he's smarter than I! His robots always seem to last longer than mine!" Wily continued. "Does he honestly believe that his machines are better than mine, the brilliant Dr. Albert Wily's?!"

"Well, I will show him!" The scientist had stopped at the large door and immediately punched in a serial code that only he knew into the buttons on the side, which immediately had raised the door with loud sounds of creaking and squeaking. The man quickly went in as soon as it was opened.

And then his rant had seemingly ended right there.

Minutes had seemingly passed, but no more sound had came from the angry scientist, puzzling Dandelion Man and Phone Man as they resumed standing from the same spot they had been the entire time. The two had glanced at each other, wondering where the doctor had went. Shrugging to themselves, they decided that there was no better way than to investigate. Though following after the insane person had chilled them to their metal endoskeletons, but curiosity was getting the best of them. So slowly nodding to each other, the two had proceeded to take cautious steps towards the opened door that the doctor had just went in. The inside was terribly dark, and they could not see what was inside…

_KA-BRAAAAAM!!_Dandelion Man and Phone Man had literally screamed and had fallen onto their backs, shivering in uncontrollable fear. Dr. Wily had just returned, but he was now in a small, purple hovercraft that very much resembled a skull, much like Wily's own belt buckle and castle. But instead of flying his amazingly unscratched hovercraft out of the entrance like any sane person would, he had just deliberately crashed through part of the metal wall, sending hundreds of sharp pieces into the air, and was now just hovering there with his hands tightly grasping onto the controls.

"I will show that man who the superior scientist is - ME!!" Wily had shouted one last time.

"Come, you miserable excuse for a pair of robots! There is some work to be done!"

"B-Bu-But…. Master, we… uh…" Phone Man stammered.

"NOW!!" Wily yelled.

"Aaaaaaaahh!! Y-Yes Master, right away!" Dandelion Man cried.

And so, the skull-shaped hovercraft had speeded off, smashing through more walls of the base in the process, at maximum speed and had shot out amongst the hills and trees of the snowy region like a flashing, purple bullet. The maniacal man had begun to laugh hysterically as his hair beated through the chilly air. Unfortunately Dandelion Man and Phone Man were the least bit lucky, for they were literally hanging on the craft's tail for their dear lives, simply because they weren't fast enough to get inside the craft in time.

The most that the impatient Wily had cared for was getting to Dr. Light's laboratory. And trouble there will arise for sure…

* * *

Several hours had passed since Monstropolis' local scientist, Dr. Light, had shown Reindeer Man to his closest robotic companions. But what a few hours they were! Ever since Dr. Light announced that midnight will be his great journey with 'Rudolph', Dr. Light had been keeping him very busy as he prepared a few more things, and not specifically for the great flight itself, but was rather checking the checklist once, and checking it twice before he even began his next series of test flights. But it wasn't just he, Rudolph and Mega Man and Rush that were all busy, but Roll as well of course! In fact, she was probably the most busiest of all! Rushing back and forth, to and fro, Roll had immediately went straight to work to clean up the humongous mess left by the yellow rocket earlier as quick as a wink, and then ran for the other rooms to also make them spick and shine. And all the while, Dr. Light, Mega Man and Rush could not help but take some minutes to watch her literally scale up the walls to dust the ceiling, bring out the 'heavy duty' vacuum cleaner for even the smallest of messes, and witnessed her run around like a blur as she swept the floors like a spinning tornado. Frankly it was becoming a bit too much for the three, even making the doctor feel quite dizzy from watching her. But nonetheless, they still had some things to prepare for…

At least, that was what it was like several minutes ago, for they were no longer cooped up in the building where Roll continued her speedy cleaning, no for now the doctor and his other robots were now standing outside in the snowy outside. But not just a few steps outside of the lab, but rather out in a clear, frigid field that was a short distance from Light's laboratory, with barely any trees except for a few whitened conifers standing up on a nearby hill.

And among them outside, was the quiet Reindeer Man in his deer form, hitched up to a great big sleigh that was otherwise empty. And the other three were standing right next to it.

"Dr. Light, are you sure this will be safe?" The blue bomber had asked.

"Positive. This isn't the first of a series of tests I've done before," Dr. Light answered. "Remember, I've been working on Rudolph for several years now."

"But you're right, safety always comes first. So, let's see what we got everything set." He said, eying Mega Man.

"Oh, alright." Mega Man said, and brought up the white note containing a list that he had been holding, and began to read it aloud.

"Sleigh all stable?" He asked.

Dr. Light had peered around the entire sleigh, checking for any faults or bumps with it. He checked it from every side of it. "Check." The doctor answered.

"Reins tightly secured?" Mega Man asked.

Light quickly checked the reins attached to both Reindeer Man and the sleigh, and even tugged them a little. They were quite secure. "Check."

"Seatbelt in place?"

"Check."

"Extra coats and blankets in the storage drawer?"

"Check."

"Emergency head lights?"

"Check."

"…Carrot?…"

Dr. Light had pulled out a metallic, orange carrot from his red coat pocket and gently threw it at Reindeer Man to catch, which Reindeer Man managed to do and he immediately ate the entire thing, making loud crunching sounds of metal being chewed up which had briefly hurt the ears of Dr. Light.

"Check… ha ha…" Light smiled.

Mega Man lowered the note. "Then I guess we are all ready…"

"Perfect!" Light said with a smile. "Now you two will be able to witness the abilities and strength of Reindeer Man!"

"I was about to ask about that…" Mega Man said skeptically. "How is he going to pull the sleigh into the air?"

"Like this," Dr. Light said, turning to face Reindeer Man. "Reindeer Man, reveal your jets."

Immediately at his creator's word, two brown plates along the side of Reindeer Man's back had opened up and out sprang two small rocket boosters from within Reindeer Man's body. Upon seeing this, Rush had grumbled a little to himself, feeling like he was copied off of.

"Small boosters?" Mega Man asked.

"They are small so that they produce less fire when in use," Dr. Light explained. "So that the sleigh and reins behind him won't catch on fire."

"I know what you're thinking," Light said, turning back to face Mega Man. "Small and compact as he may be, Reindeer Man is actually pretty strong. He can lift many things above his own weight."

"If I had revealed him to you all sooner, you would have been able to witness this one test where he managed to pull a bulldozer with ease."

Both Mega Man and Rush appeared to be surprised. "Wow, with ease? He does sound really strong!"

"He certainly is! But strength and flight isn't his only traits… He also has…" Dr. Light added.

And as the doctor explained a few more interesting facts about Reindeer Man, with Mega Man and Rush listening with curiosity, Reindeer Man continued to patiently and quietly stand as still as a statue in front of the sleigh that he was hitched up to. For such a still robot like him, one might have thought he was deactivated or broken, if not for that blinking light bulb nose that flashed brightly in red. That seemed to practically be his only indicator that he was indeed working. Generally even the most bland or unemotional robots will be active slightly, even if that only meant occasionally turning their heads. But this wasn't really a flaw with Dr. Light's programming, but rather intentional as it seemed. So there Reindeer Man stood, patiently waiting for Dr. Light to begin another test flight…

But then, something in the atmosphere, something that even Mega Man and Rush were unaware of as they continued to listen to Dr. Light, had appeared. But one else had noticed. Sensing something off in the distance high above them, Reindeer Man had actually moved for the first time in a long while, simply by tilting his head up and looking up at the blue yet still snowy sky. But mixed with the snow blowing all around, Reindeer Man couldn't really see what he had detected. So instead, he had readjusted his eyesight with zoom lens and took a closer look.

And had briefly paused.

There were… things falling from the sky, and it was definitely not the snow that was also falling. Rather it was something else, which Reindeer Man could easily tell. And almost as if it was by instinct, Reindeer Man could also tell that it was definitely something not good, and something that he had to make the others aware of, and fast! As quickly as he possible could, Reindeer Man had opened its mouth wide and immediately blared out a warning alarm… that sounded more like a million silver, jingle bells clashing against each other.

This had immediately caught the others' attention.

"Jingle bells?!" Mega Man asked in alarm.

"No! That's Reindeer Man's warning alarm!!" Dr. Light gasped in shock.

Glancing around his surroundings in a rapid pace, Rush tried to search just what was the matter. It wasn't until he had finally looked up into the sky and saw what was fast approaching, making his eyes grow wide. "Look! Above us!!"

Flashing their eyes to the windy skies, the others had realized the problem. There was indeed a group of something incoming straight at them, and it was definitely not the snow! But what was even more of a shocker, was how big they looked like! Round, white balls of around 4 feet tall were about to rain onto them!

"Look how gigantic they are…" Rush whimpered, his tail between his legs.

"Incoming! Run!!" Light screamed.

Spinning around on their feet, the three friends had immediately ran away as fast as each one of them could and had dashed away in different directions, leaving poor Reindeer Man alone while he continued to blare his scream of bells whilst standing there, everyone had forgotten about him. Starring back as he ran, Mega Man eyed the falling objects as they came closer and closer, seemingly following behind them, but not by their own accord, but rather the blowing, freezing wind was guiding them towards the three heroes. Acting out of programmed instinct, Mega Man had swiftly stopped and turned around as he rose his Mega Buster to shoot at the nearest falling ball. But the wind was working against him and was blowing the balls in all sorts of directions, making it harder for the blue bomber to aim at, and so he had just stood there and tried to concentrate as both Dr. Light and Rush continued to run as fast as they could.

However, there were several elements hindering the two of them. As Dr. Light continued to run, he couldn't help but feel that he had forgotten something that he couldn't quite put his tongue on, and these thoughts had ended up distracting him. Rush on the other hand had a very clear mind, but his encumber was the terrain itself. He was not very used to running in snowy weather, and was constantly slipping yet managed to catch his footing. But the robotic dog's luck would not last for long, for soon after poor Rush had unknowingly ran onto a thin sheet of ice and had immediately slipped and fell.

But his slip up would have a chain reaction. When Dr. Light had seen Rush slip and fall, his eyes had expanded as he suddenly remembered what he had forgotten.

"No! I forgot about Reindeer Man!!" He shouted and turned around as he ran back to where Reindeer Man was still standing, wailing away the sound of jingles.

Hearing Dr. Light shout out, Mega Man was distracted and turned his head around where he saw Dr. Light running back, right into danger! Immediately the boy robot had taken off after him.

"No!! Dr. Light!" He shouted.

Darting his eyes above him, Light had gasped as another ball had appeared and was fast approaching him! Light knew that he had to be quick, but unfortunately his age was getting the better of him, and anymore sudden movements could injure him. Still he had tried to turn around…

But it was too late; the white ball had fallen on him.

"Dr. Light!" Mega Man hollered and ran even faster.

Fearing that Dr. Light could have been squished by whatever it was, panic was going through the blue bomber's head. But when he had finally reached the fuzzy, gray-white ball, he had stopped in puzzlement.

It wasn't just any kind of ball, but a light, fluffy ball.

But the ball had moved and muffling sounds had emitted from within, and Mega Man realized that Light could still be fine and well. Immediately he had used his free hand to dig and pull away at the ball. It felt very soft to the touch, strange as it was. Eventually he had felt a firm hand grab onto his own, which could only mean it was Dr. Light. Quickly, Mega Man had carefully pulled the old man out…

But had suddenly reeled back in disgust, unintentionally making a face.

There sat Dr. Light, all fine and well and still covered by the odd fluff, except his face and beard was soaked by the tears from his watery eyes and green snot dripping out of his nose. He was also badly sneezing.

"Aaachoo!… Oh dear, my allergies… are acting up…" The doctor sniffled.

"Dr. Light! Dr. Light, are you alri- ewww!" Rush had quickly came to them, only to skid to a stop after seeing Light's face.

"Oh quite fine…" The doctor replied and tried to rub the stinky mess off of him. "… But what are these balls? This didn't hurt at all…"

Rush had turned his head and noticed the other balls of fluff piling up on the ground.

"I don't know…" Said Mega Man, leaning in for a closer look at the fluffy substance as Light quickly pushed it off of him.

"It looks like a plant bud…" The robot observed.

"Well, I'm allergic to pollen and I don't smell any; there must be… _sneeze_… something else in these…" Light sneezed.

"More importantly… where did these things come from? Why were they going after us?…"Mega Man had questioned, the others nodded in agreement and thought about this.

But just then, a sudden gust of wind had blown against their direction, causing the three to shut their eyes as they braced themselves against it. What was happening now?!

"GA HA HA ha ha ha ha!!"

Their eyes had opened up wide upon hearing that cackling laughter that came from above. No, it couldn't be, they all thought. That laughter was all too familiar. Darting their gazes up, barely gasping at all, they had seen him! He was here…!

"Dr. Wily?!" They exclaimed.

Indeed, their arch-nemesis had returned yet again, hovering in mid-air aboard his strange skull-shaped craft. Sitting in the center of the flying machine, the insane scientist had leered over each of them with a wicked grin, and eyebrows constantly moving up and down. This was nothing new to Mega Man and his two friends, who had practically seen it all from this overly obsessive man. In fact, they really weren't all that surprised to see Wily here. The hovercraft had wobbled a little, and soon two robots standing beside Wily had popped up, which actually was a little unexpected to Light, Mega Man and Rush. Who were these robots? Odder still that Wily brought them along, normally the scientist wouldn't bring any robots whenever going on a little 'joy ride' in his flying skull car. But up to this point, a lot of things had still been totally unexpected, and so the trio of close friends had shuddered as Wily hovered high above them.

"Gaah ha ha ha!" Wily laughed again. "Yes, the genius is back again! Surprised to see me?"

The three friends immediately stopped shuddering.

"No." Light simply said, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms.

"What is this, the twelfth or so since you've escaped?" Mega Man also doubtfully asked.

"What?!" Wily hollered. "Aren't you the least bit horrified to discover that I had escaped from prison again?!"

"No." Light repeated.

"In fact, the whole city knew a long time ago." Mega Man added, pulling out a wanted poster with Wily's face on it. "The only thing we don't know was how you escaped alone and where you had went."

"Bah! Fine, be like that!" Spat Wily. "But after I'm done here, you will all once again shiver at the mention of my own name!"

"Puh-lease." Light said in sarcasm. "When will you learn, Dr. Wily? You have tried and tried again to dominate the world, and every time you've been beaten."

"How dare you…" Wily hissed. "I am brilliant! And one day I will prove that when I discover the formula that will one day destroy you all!"

"Well," Mega Man said, raising up his Mega Buster and charging it up. "Are you ready to start your game now? I'm all fired up!"

"This may come as a shocker to you, but it is not you who I am interested in." Wily responded, crossing his arms and leaning back in his seat.

The trio below looked quite dumbfounded as Mega Man lowered his gunning arm. "Wait, what?…" He asked.

"Oh, don't be disappointed. Soon, very soon, I shall return to deal with you…" Wily answered, rolling his eyes. "But until then…"

The hovercraft had spun around as Wily extended his arm and pointed his finger straight at Reindeer Man, still howling away. "…I want that!!"

"Whaaat?!" The trio screamed.

Wily had laughed. "Oh ho ho, you heard me right. That deer robot over there! It shall be mine!"

"No, not Reindeer Man!" Dr. Light snapped.

"Yes!!" Wily screamed gleefully.

"But why him? He's just a deer robot!" Light demanded.

"Oh, no. He's more than that…" Wily coldly muttered. "Much more than that. I _know_ that thing is able to turn itself into a humanoid form of itself!"

"What?!" Everyone was obviously taken back. "But… how do you know?!"

"None of your business." Wily simply responded.

"And as for why I want it, well it is quite simple…"

"Do you honestly think you are smarter than I?!" He abruptly yelled. "Damn you, Light! Just when I barely have any of my own robots, you go ahead and create another! Do you think you are better than I, that your robots can live long days and that mine are, I admit, scrapped left, right and center?!"

"You go to hell!" He shouted.

"What are you talking about? Aren't those two robots yours?" Mega Man asked, pointing at Dandelion Man and Phone Man who were still standing patiently next to their master.

"Oh shut up!" Wily snapped back. "I didn't create these two numbskulls!"

Dandelion Man and Phone Man were saddened by those words.

"Is this it? You're jealous of Reindeer Man because you barely have an army of robots?" Dr. Light calmly asked, though he was clearly agitated.

"You're a fool to have just realized it. I've always hated you!" Wily barked back.

"Enough!" Mega Man shouted, raising his Mega Buster again. "You're not taking Reindeer Man anywhere! C'mon, let's end this!"

"As much as I would _love_ to toy with you, I'm afraid I'm far too busy." Wily replied, squinting his eyes.

"Phone Man! Use your Signal Thingamajig!" Wily commanded.

Chuckling boldly to himself, Phone Man had straightened himself and puffed out his chest covered with numbers. "Alright then! Time to show you all my Signal Transmitter!"

Immediately he had begun to punch a short series of numbers on his chest. "Take this!!"

An invisible signal had indeed been sent, and the crackling sounds of electricity could also be heard…

"BLAAAAAARRGHH!!" Dandelion Man short-circuited, and had fallen back.

"You stupid twit!" Wily snapped back at Phone Man, slapping him across his screen face. "Learn to control where you send the damn signals!"

"I'm sorry Master…" Phone Man sadly whined.

"Well, doesn't matter. Dandelion Man's 'Dandelion Rain-Gun' was utterly pathetic and useless anyway." Said Wily, calming down a little.

The others below just blinked, not sure of what to think.

"Well now…" Wily said, eying the trio below him. "It appears that I will be playing with you after all…"

"Have some of this!!" Wily hollered as he spun around his ship 180 degrees and hit on the ignition, sending a stream of fire which had also generated enough force of wind to send the three screaming friends flying off several feet!

They eventually crashed head first into a bank of snow.

"Gaaah ha ha ha ha ha!!" Wily laughed. "This is what you get when you test the brilliance of my intelligent brain!!"

"Now then… my prize…" A twisted grin had grown on his face as he flew his craft to Reindeer Man, who was still blaring out his alarm endlessly.

"Stupid thing, I could shut you up for good. But I'll make better use out of you." Wily said in an irritated tone.

Pressing a small button on his dashboard, a latch on the hovercraft had opened and out popped a metal arm which was being controlled by a joystick. As quickly as he possibly could, Wily had operated the metal hand to snatch Reindeer Man up and moved the still screaming creature for a closer look at him. Wily inspected him carefully.

But his constant alarming was quickly driving Wily to the deep end. Until…

"Ah-hah!" He declared.

"Annoying little deer, you shall shut the fuck up… now!" Wily shouted as he found the robot's off switch and quickly deactivated Reindeer Man, whose alarm came to a whining stop.

"Perfect…" Wily smiled to himself. "Wait… hold on…"

He leaned forward and felt the red reins still attached to Reindeer Man's lifeless body. It was then that he realized that the red sleigh was literally hanging from Reindeer Man's body, and was obviously weighing Wily's hovercraft down, which just would not do at all.

"Pfft… I don't need this stupid thing…" Wily grumbled as he pulled out a knife and began to cut away at the reins.

Until finally the sleigh was free and was now falling straight down.

Far below the hovering craft, there stood a small pile of snow, seemingly undisturbed. But then it had slowly began to move and sway as if something underneath was trying to move it away, until finally a small metal point had emerged from the center. Then some more had pushed the snow away until finally a robotic being's head had emerged from the snow completely. He looked around, clearly not amused by the setting he was in. It was Drill Man.

"Hey! You guys mind being quiet, I'm trying to mine for-"

Suddenly glancing up, his angry expression had turned into a horrified look at the sight of the red sleigh just a couple of feet above him.

"Oh, sh-"

Not too far off in the snow banks, our three heroes had been struggling with all of their might, apparently they had landed so hard that they had literally gotten themselves stuck. But eventually they were able to loosen themselves, Rush first who had then immediately helped to dig out Dr. Light and then Mega Man. As soon as the three friends were free, they had immediately turned around and starred back at Dr. Wily laughing away as usual. Hardly anyone had noticed that the now shattered sleigh had squashed Drill Man into scrap metal. But who could honestly care about him, Reindeer Man was the more important one! And upon seeing him lifeless as he dangled on Wily's metal arm, had filled the trio with much anger and dread.

Especially in Dr. Light.

"No!" Dr. Light shouted. "Damn you Wily!"

And Wily laughed again. "Damn me all you want, it matters none! For I have gotten your precious 'Rudolph!'"

"Oh no you don't!" Mega Man hollered and ran straight towards them, with Rush by his side and Dr. Light following close behind.

"Oh, I am so sorry, but my time is up." Wily sneered. "But I'll make sure that I return very soon!"

"No!" The trio yelled.

"Ta-ta for now." Wily said with a wave and fired up the ignition.

_BLAM._ And then he was gone, leaving the three friends to skid to a stop and watch the mad man leave, as he laughed away much like a bobble head would, with Reindeer Man close in tow.

And all was then silent.

"NO!" Light cried out and fell to his knees. "No, not Rudolph! No!"

"…Dr. Light…" Mega Man and Rush muttered, not sure of what else to say, as they tried to comfort him as best as they could.

"I was going to make many unfortunate children in the world smile!" The doctor continued to cry out. "And now I've failed them!"

"No…" Mega Man and Rush said. "You did not fail them…"

"Heeey! What's going on?!"

The three friends had turned around, and saw that Roll was running to them from Light's laboratory. She appeared to be quite alarmed and confused.

"What's going on?! I heard loud noises!" She demanded.

But she stopped when she noticed that Light was sitting on his knees. "…Dr. Light?…What's wrong?…"

"Roll…" Mega Man stood up, along with Rush. "Reindeer Man has been kidnapped, by Dr. Wily!"

"Whaaat?!" Roll cried out. "He came back here?!"

Mega Man had nodded.

"U… Oh no…" Roll muttered. "But Reindeer Man… and all of those children… Why did this happen?"

"We're not exactly sure…" Answered Mega Man.

"Jealousy." Said Dr. Light.

"What?" They asked, turning to face their defeated creator.

And he stood up. "Jealousy. I cannot tell for certain myself, but Wily must have been jealous of Reindeer Man…"

The doctor turned around, baring a serious expression instead of his earlier frowns.

"…We have to get him back."

"Dr. Light?…" They asked.

"We are going to get him back!" Light repeated seriously. "We can't be here moping around…"

The three robots nodded. "We agree."

"But how are we going to get to Dr. Wily? We don't know where he resides now!" Roll asked.

Dr. Light shook his head. "That shouldn't be a problem. Look over there."

Pointing over to a short distance away, the three robots had immediately noticed more of those balls of gigantic dandelion fluff from earlier. Except they appeared to be in a line leading away from the area. Then they had realized that it was a trail unknowingly left by Dr. Wily!

"Alright, a trail!" The three robots cheered.

And even better, the wind had apparently stopped a few minutes too, meaning that it won't blow away this precious trail - the only thing they could rely on now.

"Yes…" Dr. Light answered, trying to force a smile. He was still feeling distraught though.

"Then let's go now! C'mon, before something worse happens!" Mega Man urged and ran off towards the trail. Dr. Light and Rush both sighed, he could be so reckless… But without a second thought, they had followed him.

"Wait!!" Roll called and ran after them, the others immediately halted.

"I want to come to!" She exclaimed when she had arrived.

"What?!" They exclaimed.

Mega Man raised an eyebrow with uncertainty. "But Roll, I thought you said you wanted to stay in and-"

"Who cares about the dumb party now!" She snapped. "This is much more serious, and I want to help!"

Though as unsure as they were, especially since Roll never really had experience in combat before, there was still the matter that they could not really afford to lose anymore time. Reindeer Man could seriously be in trouble!

And so Dr. Light had exclaimed, "If you want to come, then do so! Hurry!!"

And so, off they ran, the four heroes in our tale. Would it take them long? Unfortunately, the trip ahead them was indeed very long. But luck was still in their favour, for the trail of fluffy balls never did stopped. And with great determination, they continued to run as far and as fast as they could. Bracing the harsh winter weather along the way…

But would they be able to arrive in time? All they could do was hope that time would be with them…

* * *

During the winter months when the days grow short, it would be pretty obvious that the sky would be quite dark right around this time, 6 in the evening. Though this hour tends to enjoy sunny days during the summer, the skies are very often pitch black in this hour of this season. Now to some, the time during the winter months may hinder them, and to others it may not. But as luck would have had it, Dr. Wily had managed to return to his castle in little or no time, and thus the darkness had not hindered him this time.

Or at least, that's what he had thought when he arrived 'back home' two hours ago. And now everything seemed to be pretty 'normal' again. Dandelion Man and Phone Man were back to being bossed around left, right and center, and were immediately sent to fix the walls that Dr. Wily had deliberately destroyed on this day with his hovercraft. Speaking of which, his skull hovercraft was also neatly parked in its own garage too. All of this would be considered the 'usual' within Wily's insane yet somewhat humble abode.

But in actuality, the castle obviously had a new addition to it. And it was Reindeer Man of course.

When the diabolical group had returned to the hidden base, Wily had immediately went on to business, and ignored Phone Man's plea to 'fix up Dandelion Man' after his last fiasco with his signal attack. But obviously Wily had no real care in the world for them, and rather it was the still unconscious Reindeer Man that was the center of his attention. So sending off Phone Man to work and to 'leave Dandelion Man just about anywhere', Wily had dragged the deer robot to his lab room and made several modifications by opening up a panel on the robot's head. And about an hour later, he had returned with Reindeer Man in his humanoid form.

…A different Reindeer Man…

No longer was he the peaceful, quiet yet occasionally peppy, and perhaps even dumb self. And he especially had no care in the world for Dr. Light now, for Wily had reprogrammed Reindeer Man just as he had done to many other robots before in the past. All thought and all memory of Reindeer Man's past had been wiped clean, and now the only one he serves is none other than Wily.

And Wily had never looked happier. Dr. Light may still own more robots than he does, but at least Wily had one smart robot now, and he rolled his eyes as he thought of his two stooges of robots. Perhaps now victory will soon be in his palms, he smiled as he had thought of that.

That was all quite some time ago, and hours had passed. But Wily did not stir from discomfort, knowing that his enemies will soon discover his new base and arrive, right now he was quite the opposite. Instead Wily had been reclining in his chair, feet leisurely kicked up onto his desk, as he sipped another cup of tea, this time tasting sweet to his senses. Every so often he would glance around to check up on the well-being of Reindeer Man, who was quietly standing very still near one of the doors, apparently guarding it. And other times he would gaze over to his least appreciated robots as they both continued to fix up the recent damages. When Wily had finished modifying Reindeer Man, he was once again approached by Phone Man and asked to repair Dandelion Man's own damages. Finally after being pestered enough, Wily had angrily given in and quickly fixed up Dandelion Man, much to the doctor's annoyance.

And now, he was waiting. Waiting for _them_ to arrive anytime soon. And they will come; he was quite well-assured of that. And until that impending hour, he shall sit here and relax…

But to his extreme annoyance, his relaxation was not going all that well…

"Aaaaaaaaaah!… My head still hurts…" Dandelion Man complained from several distances away where he and Phone Man were working on repairing a wall. He was holding his head as if in pain. Obviously Wily was being quite careless when he had finally been brought up to repair Dandelion Man.

"Well, you know Master… We'd best not to bug him; else he might get angry…" Phone Man whispered as he proceeded to screw in a bolt, trying to be as quiet as he possibly could.

But the sound of the bolt being screwed in, with its terrible whining sounds, had only greatly irritated Dandelion Man more.

"Ahhhhh!! It hurts…!" He hollered.

The sound of a teacup being slammed against a metal desk had ruptured.

"Will you learn to shut up and work?!" Dr. Wily swiftly spun around and screamed at them. "Stop complaining about your head! I fixed it already!!"

"Ahh!!" Phone Man yelped and began to wave his hands desperately. "P-Please forgive him Master, he just needs more time to-"

"Aaaaaahhh! Make that whizziling sound stop!" Dandelion Man complained again.

"Huh?" Phone Man remarked as he looked at the screw driver in his hand. He was no longer using it, but…

But his perplexed thoughts were quickly replaced by fear, for Dr. Wily was now marching straight towards them, stomping in his boots as he moved.

He stopped right in front of poor Dandelion Man and picked him up by the tuff of his puffy helmet. "You idiot! What do you hear now?!" The scientist had screamed at the plant robot.

"Aaaahhh!! It's getting louder!!" Dandelion Man continued to cry, and immediately Dr. Wily had lost his patience and dropped him to the ground.

"You!" He pointed at Phone Man, making him jump. "What is your little friend complaining of now, I hear nothing!!"

"Ah, ahhh!… Sir, I-I mean Master… I regret to say this, but I have no idea!" Phone Man panicked.

"Why you little-" Wily growled.

But then he stopped, as did Phone Man. And both had looked at the southern wall.

Though it was quite faint, they could indeed distinctively hear something now… And it was getting louder as the minutes passed, but what exactly was it? They paused longer to listen closely… And what's more, they could feel the floor rumble every time they heard it…

_Hisssssssss… BANG!_ _Hissssss… BANG! Hissssssss… BANG!_

Wily had rose an eyebrow and looked at Phone Man for some answers, but the afraid robot could only shrug.

"What in the world is that?!" Wily demanded. "And why is the room shaking?"

"It's getting louder, Master…" Phone Man observed.

"Of course I realize that!!" Wily snapped. "What I want to know WHAT it is and WHY it's-"

_KA-BLAAAAM!_

Immediately the two had swiftly spun around to the southern wall from where initially the sounds were coming from, and to their complete shock had seen that part of the wall had fallen down - and standing right there was Mega Man, Rush, Roll and Dr. Light!

And the one standing in front of the little group, was the robotic dog Rush with an ignited blowtorch that had been extended out from his back just prior. He was also apparently wearing goggles, which he quickly pawed off of his eyes. It became quite obvious to Wily and his robots of what just happened, that meddling group of scientist and robots had found the base and used Rush as a blowtorch to knock down the walls to get inside! And it was especially evident, by the line of fallen walls and of the tunnels they had made behind them.

Dandelion Man had stopped holding his head and had smiled. "The pain is all gone!" He exclaimed.

"I knew installing that blowtorch gear to Rush would come in handy." Dr. Light said.

"Woof, woof!" Rush barked.

"It's you!!" Dr. Wily shouted in a rage.

"Right! We found your secret base, Wily!" Mega Man exclaimed. "Didn't realize that a trail of fluff balls would lead us straight to here, huh? Surprised, aren't you?"

For a moment, Wily had been silenced.

"…Not really." Wily coughed, sarcastically.

The rest had remained silent.

"From all of my years with having to deal with the likes of you, it seems pretty pointless in even hiding my 'secret' bases." Wily simply said. "I was expecting you four to show up anytime soon…"

His eyes then squinted. "But I was not expecting you meddlesome group to destroy my castle's walls! Do you even realize how much it cost?!"

"Um, Master… It was us who paid for everything…" Phone Man and Dandelion Man had pointed out.

"Shut up!!" The enraged scientist had spun around and screamed at them, immediately silencing the robots.

Calming down, Wily had turned back to his four visitors. "Well… In all due respect, I suppose we may as well get on with this."

"That's right!" Mega Man said as he had taken a step forward and rose his Mega Buster and aimed it at Phone Man and Dandelion Man, which had badly frightened them.

"Aaaahh! N-No, please don't!" The two robots pleaded. "We're sorry for showering you with balls of dandelions! Please don't shoot!"

Slightly smiling to himself, believing that the robots had surrendered without a fight, Mega Man glanced back to Wily. "…Return Reindeer Man now this instant!"

Wily rolled his eyes. "Do you think I would honestly care the slightest if those two were to be destroyed?

His visiting group had looked perplexed, and Dandelion Man and Phone Man had only frowned again.

Wily had then smirked. "Well, I have a pleasant Christmas gift for all of you…"

"Reindeer Man! Destroy that goddamn blue bomber!!" He commanded as he taken a giant step forward and pointed straight at Mega Man.

A small blast from a distance away was heard, and shortly after everyone had peered their eyes at the ceiling as they saw a brown object rocketing towards the large group of people and robots. The four protagonists

were stunned in surprise, especially Dr. Light who had looked on in horror. Wily had instead smiled to himself and chuckled deeply. And only Phone Man and Dandelion Man seemed to hardly notice anything, for their eyes were still glued to the ground in disappointment and sadness.

Then at last, he landed. Reindeer Man in his humanoid form, with his small yet powerful jet rockets out from the sides of his back.

And he appeared to be quite… emotionless at this reunion.

"Reindeer Man…!" The blue bomber and his sister had gasped.

"Rudolph…" Dr. Light muttered in disbelief.

As much as they hated to admit it to themselves, they knew what had happened to Reindeer Man. They knew that Dr. Wily had reprogrammed the once tame robot to do his bidding, much like he had done in the past many times before…

Wily shrugged, still smiling. "I doubt that this is unexpected to any of you. But regardless, Reindeer Man is mine now…"

"…R-Rudolph…" Light had murmured again.

But then the doctor had stopped and took a breath in, and had then cautiously taken a few steps towards the deer robot. Amazingly, Reindeer Man had just stood there quietly as his creator, which he no longer acknowledged, had came closer and closer. Light's other robots had looked a bit surprised, what was Light doing?

"Rudolph…" Light breathed again, and reached out a hand…

"No! Stop!" Mega Man rushed in, and had grabbed onto Light's coat and managed to pull him away just before Reindeer Man was about to slap the doctor's hand away.

The two had landed on the ground with a large thud.

"Dr. Light! What were you doing?!" He exclaimed, but Light had remained quiet.

"Oh, saddened that you've just lost another robot to me? Strange that you never exhibited these emotions when I did the same to Guts Man and co." Wily teased. Light still didn't say anything.

But both he and Mega Man did stand up. Light still appeared quite saddened, but Mega Man had clutched his free hand into a fist and glared at Wily.

"…Well, too bad!" Wily resumed, laughing at Light. "'Cause you're about to lose another robot!"

"Reindeer Man, go now!!"

Immediately by his new master's orders, Reindeer Man had ignited his boosters and sprang forth into action straight towards his target! Acting as quickly as they could, Roll and Rush had grabbed onto Light and pulled him away into a safe distance, again falling back to the ground in the process. But Mega Man was not the least bit lucky; he was unable to react in time to Reindeer Man's surprising flight speed and was rammed against by the deer robot's antlers! Reindeer Man had continued his bee-line flight path, until the two had reached the metal wall and crushed Mega Man against it just before flying straight up into the air. Mega Man had shouted as he felt his energy plummet.

…And there he stayed, against the wall while Reindeer Man continued to fly circles in the air.

"Oh no, Mega Man!" Roll, Rush and Dr. Light, who had finally snapped out of his saddened state, had panicked. Wily had only howled with laughter.

"That sure is _some_ invention, Dr. Light! Thank you ever so much!!" He laughed.

But soon after their panic and his laughter had resumed, they were interrupted by what sounded like a whirling sound. Glancing over to Mega Man, they had noticed that he had just injected himself with some energy from an E Tank and was now standing up unharmed, all primed and ready for action again. The trio had cheered, and Wily remained quiet. Reindeer Man had also immediately stopped circling around, but was now hovering in mid-air as he watched Mega Man below.

"That sure was some dirty trick, attacking while I was unprepared!" Mega Man had said. Reindeer Man was still quietly hovering.

"I lost a lot of energy travelling to this castle, but now I'm fully energized!" He exclaimed. "And now I'm all ready! Let's go!"

"Hmph… A mere setback…" Wily had crossed his arms; the two robots had glanced over to him. "But no matter, he will be scrap metal soon…"

"If you think I'm going to lose to a few tackles, then you're wrong Dr. Wily!" Mega Man ushered and had then immediately sprinted off into a run; with his Mega Buster aimed high to attack back.

Reindeer Man quickly acknowledged what Mega Man was about to do and had immediately blasted towards him again! But Mega Man kept on running straight towards the humanoid deer robot and began to take aim, an aiming scope in his eyes had centered on his target's rocketing body. Not either one had showed signs of stopping the slightest, not even to change direction. Roll and Rush had 'held their breaths'; Light grinded his teeth nervously, worried about the outcome for either one of his robots; Wily had merely squinted his eyes; and Dandelion Man and Phone Man were still patiently waiting for an order from their master, or were at least hoping that they could still be useful. Then once the two robots were half-way away from each other, Mega Man had immediately shot out several bullets from his Mega Buster at Reindeer Man! But then unexpectedly, Reindeer Man had managed to dodge out of the way by zipping back and forth, much like a hummingbird or a bee! Mega Man had skidded to a stop as his mouth dropped. He could hardly believe it, even Quick Man wasn't that fast! But then he realized that he was in serious danger standing still, and Reindeer Man had immediately resumed his charge, but luckily for Mega Man, he managed to jump to the side away in time. The others could hardly keep their eyes off of the battle between them.

The two had continued to run and fly about, with Mega Man occasionally trying to aim his Mega Buster, but he was being too preoccupied trying to dodge Reindeer Man's mean speed. It was almost ridiculous. The trio of watching protagonists had continued to anticipate, and Wily was laughing his head off.

The mad scientist had wiped away a tear from all of his laughter. "What's this? Is the blue bomber that had been causing me so much trouble these past long years suddenly can't keep up now? Oh how unfortunate…"

Roll, Rush and Light had looked over at Wily, their eyebrows frowning.

"As amusing as this is…" He chuckled. "I'm a very busy man, and I would like to get this done and over with as quickly as possible…"

"So! Reindeer Man, show him your other dazzling ability!!"

While still flying madly in the air, chasing after Mega Man, Reindeer Man had acknowledged his master's command as he begun to prepare. Still running, Mega Man had looked over his shoulder and was met with a surprising display of Reindeer Man with his white eyes opened wide. Though hard to tell to the normal, naked eye, Mega Man had detected that Reindeer Man was using his expanded vision to take aim! But almost as soon as the blue bomber had noticed that, Reindeer Man's light bulb nose had flashed brightly in red, and had then suddenly shot out a red laser beam! Gasping, Mega Man had steered the other way and was fortunate enough to have jumped out of the way successfully again, before skidding to another stop.

"What was that?!" He exclaimed.

Roll and Rush also couldn't believe their eyes.

Angrily, the girl robot had turned to face her creator. "Dr. Light, what were you thinking? Laser beams?! But I thought Reindeer Man was going to help you help the poor!"

"He was!" Light cried out. "But I installed combat abilities for emergencies!"

"This is an emergency!" Roll cried. "Mega Man can't keep up! Reindeer Man is too fast and too high up!"

"I know…" Light muttered. "His speed was supposed to be specifically designed to make traveling around the world a lot quicker…"

Rush had then suddenly barked to get their attention. "Well if the problem is the height and speed, I can help Mega Man! I am fast and I can fly too!"

"…Of course!" Both Roll and Dr. Light exclaimed, smiling with hope in their eyes.

"Rush, go and aid Mega Man! Hurry!" Light ordered him.

"Of course!" Rush barked and galloped away towards Mega Man as quickly as he could.

The battle between the blue bomber and the deer robot had ensued, with Mega Buster bullets being fired everywhere, with the occasional charged up blast, along with thousands of laser beams being fired every few seconds. But both robots had managed to keep their speed, Mega Man kept hopping around to dodge the beams and Reindeer Man kept zipping to and fro to get out of the way of the projectiles. But Mega Man was still against the odds, and every so often he would get hit by a beam and fall back, only to jump back onto his feet and continue his best to fight. Not even once did he think about Light's feelings if Reindeer Man were to be destroyed, being the reckless robot he was. And besides, the deer robot had to be stopped, or else Wily would use it for total destruction. But already it seemed like there was total destruction, for soon the floor was no longer smooth and flat, but rather rugged and banged from all of the damage it was taking, turning the castle into an obstacle course. But regardless, the battle had continued and Mega Man had ignored all other sources of sound to prevent him from being distracted. But he had heard one sound… and it was the voice of Rush! He turned around quickly before dodging another beam…

"Mega Man! I am going to help you!" Rush barked out loud, as he prepared himself to spring out his rocket boosters…

Wily had fumed as the robotic dog came onto the scene. "What's this? …Oh, it's that stupid mutt again! I can't afford to have that dog help Mega Man at any cost!"

He spun around and faced Phone Man and Dandelion Man, startling them in the process. "Phone Man! Dandelion Man! Go and get that robotic dog! I want you to prevent it from getting near Mega Man! It must be stopped at all costs!"

"Do I make myself clear?!"

Dandelion Man and Phone Man had rose their faces, their frowns now smiling and eyes showing strong signs of hope. "Is this true?… Are we really… needed?"

"JUST GO!!"

Nodding and saluting in a split second, the two robots had immediately ran off and headed straight towards the unexpecting Rush. They ran up in front of the robotic dog, surprising him, and Rush had slid to a halt at their feet.

Phone Man and Dandelion Man were pounding their metal fists. "Not so fast, you pesky little pup! I'm afraid you have a date with us first…" Phone Man had threatened him.

"Yeah! Master Wily says you're bad!" Dandelion Man added, grinning devilishly.

Rush immediately began to growl and bear his teeth at them. "I don't have time for this!"

And with that said, the red dog had pounced right on top of the slow-acting Phone Man and Dandelion Man and furiously bit them and smacked them with his rounded paws rapidly! Their small fight had quickly turned into a big mess as all three robots tumbled around in what appeared to be a dust cloud, and nothing could be seen, but only the snarls of Rush and the screaming of Phone Man and Dandelion Man as they desperately tried to get out of the brawl was heard.

"Aaaaaahhhh!! My ears hurt again!!"

"Let me out! Please stop biting my buttons!!"

Dr. Wily couldn't help but sigh and palmed his face in his hands at the sight of those failures losing. Of all the robots he had created or gained control over, these two were probably the most miserable robots he had ever taken command of. How could he hope to ever achieve anything with them? But when he turned around and went back to witnessing the fight between Reindeer Man and Mega Man, he had went back to his constant laughter. Mega Man appeared to be losing this fight as he slowly and steadily lost his energy to the laser beams. He was sure that even if that robotic dog were to reach Mega Man by now, it would be too late for the blue bomber. A wicked grin had came over the scientist's face as he thought of this, and he rubbed his hands with anticipation. He couldn't wait any longer, but he knew that patience is virtue.

Roll and Dr. Light however, were obviously not amused at all, but were rather shocked as they held their hands onto their heads. Though Rush was doing a good job fighting back Phone Man and Dandelion Man, the two robots' constant screaming and scrambling was also getting in the way in Rush. At this rate, Mega Man might be doomed by the time Rush reaches him!

Roll turned to Dr. Light again, now in a panic. "Dr. Light! You have to do something!!"

"Me? Robots are superior to humans, what can I do?!" Light whined.

"But you know that I can't fight! I can't do anything!" Roll argued back, silently regretting the words she said. "Dr. Light, you must find some way to do something! Please, you must!"

Light had opened his mouth to say something, but stopped. She was right; he had to think of something! But what, what could a human like him do? There were so many obstacles against him. Humans can't fight robots, which was precisely why he had upgraded 'Mega' into the fighter Mega Man, but now he was in trouble. Light tried to think and think, and harder still. But he felt distracted by something a distance away… and it was none other than Wily's diabolical laughter. Light growled and grinded his teeth, he couldn't stand that barbaric howling anymore! Hands clutched into fists, Light had angrily marched off towards Wily's direction, leaving Roll alone with a puzzled and concerned look.

Wily had been so focused on the battle scene, that he had not noticed Dr. Light approach him at all. Unfortunately for him, hardly noticing Light would become a big mistake, for as soon as Light had came up behind Wily, he had literally punched him against the back which had sent the old scientist to the ground, only to get up and furiously glare back. Roll had covered her mouth in shock.

"What the fuck was that for?!" Wily screamed, rubbing his back.

"That was for all of the shit you have put us through these past years!" Light snapped back. "Why can't you just learn to give up and leave us all alone?!"

"How dare you… I've been through hell and back just the same!" Wily argued back. "And ever so, so close to achieving my goal! And yet you and that bloody Mega Man are always there to foil my plans!"

"Your goal, your goal for world domination? Why do you even want that, Wily?! I always thought you were better than this!" Snapped Light.

"The man you once knew was the man who worked with you! And I still regret that to this day!" Wily exclaimed.

"What are you talking about?" Inquired Light as he placed his hands against his hips.

"Isn't obvious to you by now?! We may have worked together and been responsible for the advancement of robotics, but you were always upstaging me! Everyone liked you but me!" Wily snapped back.

Light paused momentarily. "… Well, you deserved it! Your creations were harmful to humanity!"

"Maybe they were. But your inventions were just as terrible!"

"What?!"

As the two scientists continued to argue amongst themselves about their past, the fearsome combat between Reindeer Man and Mega Man ensued while the rumble between Rush and the cowardly Phone Man and Dandelion Man continued. And unfortunately for our heroes, Mega Man still appeared to be losing the fight and Rush was still stuck in the tangle with the two robots. The only one who wasn't throwing punches or verbal threats was Roll, who was looking pretty horrified and distraught as she watched both the physical fights and the verbal fight between the scientists. Everyone but her was fighting in some form. And she could hardly believe what was happening. Rush was unable to help, and Light's argument with Wily was just making the situation worse, and Mega Man was in desperate need of help. But Roll had also felt worse when she thought of this, she couldn't help him since she can't fight. All she really knew was how to clean and cook, and under these circumstances, she was feeling pretty useless with herself. What could she do?

Glancing back to the argument between the enraged scientists, who had now moved on to about their previous creations, and then darting her eyes back at the flying Reindeer Man as he fired more lasers at her brother, Roll had placed her hand against her chin as she tried to calculate what would work. But the most she could figure out was of the initial reason why Reindeer Man was created…

And then, it hit her! An idea had popped into her head… But the nature of it might result in failure, she had also thought. But there was hardly any time to argue with herself whether she should go with it or not, and immediately she ran over to the direction of Dr. Wily and Dr. Light.

"… You lie!" Wily had shouted just as their argument had switched to a different subject. "I may have used my creations to destroy places and people, but their initial purposes were just as important as your robots!"

"Says the person who made Heat Man look like a freaking zippo lighter!" Light argued back.

Wily had only scoffed and turned away from Light as he crossed his arms. "Well I at least I did not create Splash Woman to suc-"

"YOU TAKE THAT BACK!!"

"Please stop it you two!" Cried Roll as she ran up to them. The two scientists immediately paused to lower their heads at the small robot girl below them.

"You two shouldn't be arguing! There's no time for that, everything's a disaster!" Roll said desperately.

At those words, the two scientists had taken a brief glance at each other, before quickly turning away from each other and crossing their arms again. Roll had frowned, she was quite aware of the bad chemistry between the two, but there was just still no time for this. Something had to be done.

"…Please! You two shouldn't be like this!…" Roll tried again, but the two scientists silently refused again.

"… D-Dr. Wily!" Roll quickly went up to the spiky haired doctor. "You have to call this off! Right now!"

"Hah!" Wily had laughed. "Do you honestly expect me to end this while I am the one winning?!"

"But Dr. Wily, this is the Christmas season! It is a time for peace and happiness, not fighting or world domination! Can't you find it in your heart to end this?" She asked again.

"Christmas? Bah humbug! I could care less about that!" Responded Wily. "…But I suppose I am being a little in the holiday spirit, with Reindeer Man on my side and all…"

Light angrily turned back to face Wily. "Haven't you even wondered why I created Reindeer Man?! I was going to fly in the air with him to deliver gifts to all of the starving, homeless and orphaned children around the world!"

Wily still wasn't amused. "Well, I _did_ wonder why for a second. But frankly, I don't care about the children either way. If I took over this world, they would be wiped off-"

"You heartless bastar-!!" Light shouted.

"Please, just stop already!" Roll cried. "We need to do something!"

She pleaded before Wily. "Please Dr. Wily! Just once, won't you consider ceasing this attack? Please?!"

But Wily only laughed again. "You were a fool to ask that of me even once! No! I am winning, and I will never let this end!!"

Roll looked pretty downed, but Light's irritated expression hadn't changed. He knew that Wily was a stubborn man, and that it was indeed pointless to argue with him like this. …Yes, even he would admit that their own little argument a few moments ago was also pointless, and maybe even made the situation worse. The doctor shook his head as he went over to Roll.

"Forget it, Roll." Light said snappily, to her surprise. "Wily can never be changed. Now come, we must help Mega Man ourselves!"

He had grabbed her hand and started to pull her away in a sprint, which Roll had struggled just to keep up with him.

"Dr. Light, where are you taking me?" She cried. "…But Dr. Light, what _can_ we do? We still don't know!"

Light had skidded to a stop, and momentarily paused before letting out a sigh.

"…I don't know… I still don't know…" The doctor had groaned, and Roll had remained silent.

And together, the two had miserably turned back to face the ongoing destruction of Mega Man's and Reindeer Man's desperate fight to the death. Bullets and lasers were still being shot everywhere, and all around them the castle of Wily was still being completely destroyed! The ceiling was cracking, some machines had been toppled over, and the floor looked more like mountains than hills a few minutes ago. But glancing over back to where Wily had stood, it was clear that he had seemingly no more care in the world for the well-being of his property, and even as his most priceless of objects got totally annihilated, that mad man was still howling with laughter as he watched the battle continue. Or maybe it was because he didn't notice the wreckage of the base. But never mind him, Light and Roll both thought, as they turned their attention back to the destructive combat, trying to think of something that they could do to help Mega Man out. And as it appeared to them, Reindeer Man was still flying as fast as ever; Rush was still trapped in his tumble-brawl between Dandelion Man and Phone Man…

…And Mega Man was slowing down… His legs moved slower, as well as the amount of bullets he shot back… Not to mention that he was looking pretty banged up too…

And Dr. Light and Roll could only manage to bite their lips and watch on in horror, desperately trying to find a solution. This was bad, just very, very bad!

But Wily, of course, found all of this to be highly amusing. "Yes… Soon, soon Mega Man shall lose his last bit of energy when Reindeer Man deals the final blow… And then! Then…!" The scientist could not finish as he was so overcome with delight. Things were finally going in his favour, a first for him.

And indeed, things did strongly appear to be going in his favour, and against everyone else, especially Mega Man. As he hopped around, across ridges and over square tiles that had been turned up while trying his hardest to dodge laser beams and sudden dashes, Mega Man also knew that the odds were being against him. He continued to jump, until finally he had tripped over a lose wire and had fallen into a pile of rubbish and tiles, which had concealed him underneath. Reindeer Man had immediately stopped flying and looked around, he could not find his target anywhere. But instead of swooping down to search carefully, the deer robot had only proceeded to fire more lasers at the rubble in an attempt to find Mega Man. …And as for Mega Man; he remained hidden in that one spot where he had fallen. Normally this would be a good time to rethink his strategy instead of fighting back recklessly like he always had been, but instead he just laid there seemingly unable to move. His energy had decreased a lot, and the most he felt capable of doing was to just lay there and quietly think to himself…

It was then that he realized that Reindeer Man, despite being controlled by Wily, still had a very important purpose in this world, to help bring smiles on all of those unfortunate children in the world… That alone was the sole reason Reindeer Man came into existence. But now he had been corrupted, and Mega Man had no choice but to fight him regardless of what, or else Wily would use him for more unjustified doings. Sure, Mega Man had to fight Dr. Light's previous creations before that had gotten reprogrammed by Wily. But in all of those cases, those robots were eventually rebuilt and had reverted back to their tranquil selves. But what Mega Man was facing, he realized now, was that no matter the outcome, the unfortunate children won't be seeing a friendlier Reindeer Man. If Reindeer Man got defeated, it would take far too long to rebuild him. And if Mega Man lost, well Wily would just keep Reindeer Man to himself.

The blue bomber raised his head with guilt. All of Light's planning and design would be wasted, and so many people disappointed, no matter which side won…!

_BOOOOM!!_

"NOOO!!" Mega Man screamed as he was flung up into the air. Reindeer Man had managed to find him, and had completely blown away his cover with one of his laser beams!

Shortly the blue bomber had fallen on another pile of trash, but knowing that he was in great danger in being out in the open, he had immediately mustered all of his strength to stand up and began to run and hop off as best as he could as Reindeer Man continued his pursuit and fired more lasers, while Wily continued to laugh in the distance.

A few seconds later into his run, Mega Man had quickly turned around and fired a few more bullets from his Mega Buster just as Reindeer Man fired another laser! But instead, Reindeer Man had swerved to the left to avoid the bullets, but because he was also still firing a laser at that very point, his laser beam had also moved over to the left just as he zipped back, and was now going in a different direction…

Straight at Dr. Wily!!

The doctor's laughter had soon ceased, replaced by a look of sheer shock when he had noticed the laser beam coming straight at him! Mega Man turned his head as he ran and gasped; Light and Roll had held their breath as they all witnessed the beam of red light flying towards Wily; and Reindeer Man was still going after Mega Man.

…Without a second thought, Dr. Wily had quickly ducked his head just before the laser had flashed over his balding head! A small explosion was heard behind him as the laser came in contact with a wall.

…And shortly after, he had rose up with his fists up in the air and feet stomping the ground. "You stupid machine! Watch where you're-… eh?…"

The scientist had paused, feeling something unusually hot above him and had heard what appeared to be crackling sounds… Wily had looked up, only for his mouth to drop and his arms to rise in panic. That laser beam had just set his hair on fire!

"Jesus fucking Christ!!" He screamed, eyes bulging out. "My hair is on fire!!"

And immediately the burning scientist had ran as fast as his legs could carry him to a short distance away, all spectators except for Mega Man (since Reindeer Man was still chasing him to no end) were as still as statues as they watched Wily dash away, blinking in total awe and could hardly believe what had just occurred. Even Rush, Dandelion Man and Phone Man had ceased their little fight to watch the scientist sprint into a nearby room. A few moments later, a loud splash could be heard and shortly after a now wet Wily had returned to a scene, wearing a bucket on his head that was once filled with water… And, he was walking calmly and slowly, something which had disturbed Light, Roll and the other robots…

The tapping of his brown shoes continued, interrupted only by the loud explosion of Reindeer Man's attacks, until finally the doctor had stopped at where he had been standing previously… And carefully he took his bucket helmet off his blackened head…

His eyebrows lowered, his teeth were grinding and his fists were shaking as soon as the bucket had left his hand and fell onto the floor with a loud bang. Knowing this, the others had backed away slowly from him, even though they were already quite a distance away from the moustached scientist… Even Mega Man, once in better cover, had skidded to a stop and nervously glanced at him…

"ARGH! You stupid, worthless robot!!" Wily screamed at the flying Reindeer Man. But the robot had not heard him at all and continued to zoom around in search of the blue bomber.

And Wily was only angered even more.

"You fucking piece of shit!" Wily shouted, and mindlessly had pulled out a red screwdriver from his white coat pocket…

And threw it straight up into the air, aiming for Reindeer Man!

"NO! DON'T!!" Light shouted and ran towards Wily, with Roll, Rush and Dandelion Man and Phone Man following him closely behind.

...But it was too late. By the time they had gotten to Wily, he had already threw the small tool high enough into the air, leaving everyone forced to watch the object as it flew through the air in total awe, and holding their breaths. Cautiously Mega Man had peered out from over the rubble he hid behind, and also watched the soaring screwdriver, which too had made him feel uneasy…

And as luck would have had it, the only one who wasn't paying attention to their surroundings, was Reindeer Man. Flying around in a fast pace, still trying to look for the hiding blue bomber and refusing to give up whatsoever, Reindeer Man had hardly noticed the red tool in the air, nay, had not even heard Wily's prior shouting. The screwdriver continued to twirl in the air higher and higher from Wily's skilful throw, until finally gravity had taken its course, the tool had slowed down and had then spun its way down. But in the meantime, Reindeer Man was still rocketing about in a circle, and was just so happening to be heading towards the path of the falling screwdriver! The group's eyes had popped out; teeth grinding in shock as they watched what might unfold into the inevitable…

And as they had all feared, Reindeer Man had zoomed in at the worst moment possible, and the screwdriver's point had jabbed its way right into the scalp, between the antlers, of Reindeer Man's head! A horrible crash of electricity had been shot out from his brown, metallic noggin, and the poor robot's eyes and light bulb nose flashed violently as a result! The group of scientists and robots below had their jaws drop in terror, but refused to stop watching as Reindeer Man started to fly around in uncontrollable zig-zag patterns. He was short circuiting! But his uneven flight had only lasted for a brief moment, for shortly after the deer robot's jets had suddenly lost their ignition, and down Reindeer Man had fell, straight towards some plugged in wires in the corner! The scientists had both ushered a short gasp, only to be interrupted by an explosion of electricity shooting out from Reindeer Man just as he crashed on the wires! The group immediately turned away and shielded their eyes from the blinding display of electricity jetting forth everywhere, and the lights above them had rapidly flicked on and off, other lights had shattered from the sudden bolts of voltage. The crackling sounds and the flashing of light continued, until finally… it abruptly ended.

And all became quiet.

Silently, the group had all stood around, still apparently covering their eyes and looking in the other direction. Slowly, they opened their eyes to the total pitch blackness of the room, and cautiously turned back around and glanced around. But they could not see anything, for it was far too dark. The only thing that they did know, was the dead silence that had also disturbed them. Yet no one had dared to speak a single word during this very moment, too frightened and mystified to utter anything. It was then shortly after that the emergency power storage within the base had kicked in, and all of the lights that were not destroyed had flicked on until the room was dimly lit, not as bright as it was a few moments ago, but still bright nonetheless. But even with their vision clearing and being able to see their surroundings, still not a sound was spoken.

Rather, they all starred at the mess of Reindeer Man's still intact body laying on the completely toast wires. And he was not moving an inch.

"…Reindeer Man…" Roll sadly murmured.

"Dr. Wily, you idiot!!" Light suddenly turned around and grabbed onto Wily's arms, nearly shaking him. "You do NOT throw objects at robots!!"

"Shut up!! I'm not the idiot, I am a genius!!" Wily snapped back, pulling himself away from Light's grasp.

"Stop it!" Mega Man ushered loudly, and immediately the two scientists glanced back at him.

Mega Man sighed, shaking his head. "… It's over. The children won't be seeing 'Santa Claus'. Let's just retrieve him and go…"

Light had sadly nodded and lowered his gaze, knowing that Mega Man was right, and this he felt very bad. But Wily had only crossed his arms and looked away from the two, not really caring the slightest.

Sighing deeply and their heads lowered, Mega Man, Dr. Light, Roll and Rush had walked away from the group and calmly started to approach the unmoving body of Reindeer Man, with Light leading the way. Wily, Phone Man and Dandelion Man had all watched from afar, and only Wily's two robots had looked back with sadness in their eyes, Wily still not caring regardless of what. The group of four had continued to make their way across the room, until they finally stopped where Reindeer Man had fallen, still all tangled up in smoking wires. Light had knelt down for a closer look at him, the deer robot was laying on his belly and no one could see what his face may have looked like now. All they could see was that he had a loose arm, and splotches of burn marks were all over his body, his still standing antlers, and on his jets where smoke had also burned from. Light had sighed again; his other robots behind him had frowned. So this was the aftermath of all of his planning and years of hard work, Light had thought to himself. He really did felt terrible, feeling as if he let so many people down. Breathing in, he stood up and turned to face his other robots.

A small tear had escaped his eye. "Alright… let's pack him up and-"

_Whhiirrrl…_

His eyes grew wide, having been badly startled, along with everyone else's, including that of Wily, Phone Man and Dandelion Man. That sound… Cautiously Light had turned around, only to jerk back in surprise. Reindeer Man's left foot, or hoof as the case may be, was moving!

Crackling of static and of metal jerking was heard as more of Reindeer Man's damaged parts had moved. First the head had shook a little, then his right arm started to wave a bit, and then his back started to shutter and arch as the once-thought-to-be-dead Reindeer Man was coming back alive in front of their eyes! The floors thudded as the robot had managed to lift up his arms and legs and onto the ground as he started to push himself up on his hand, as the other hand no longer worked. His legs bent and retracted as he managed to lift himself into a sitting position on his knees, and proceeded to then wobbly stand himself up, all while his head continued to violently jerk with tiny jolts of electricity. Dr. Light's heart thumped faster as he and his robots started to back away, each of them having no idea what was going on.

And then Reindeer Man had suddenly turned around, revealing that half of his face had been ripped off, which had once concealed a shining skull with a glowing, red eye underneath!

"Jesus Christ! It's the Terminator!!" Dr. Light screamed and instinctively began to run off, leaving his three other robots just as shocked as they stood in front of Reindeer Man.

"What the?!" Wily gasped, and Phone Man and Dandelion Man had shrieked in fright.

Dr. Light continued to run until he had reached Dr. Wily, and ended up hiding behind his back, much to Wily's extreme annoyance. But Wily too was just as horrified at this sudden turn of events as Light was. The three robots of Light continued to stand in front of the waking Reindeer Man, but they stood terribly still, unable to comprehend what had just happened. Their systems were confused… But Reindeer Man had not patiently waited like he normally would, and started to move again in jerking movements, taking an uneven step forward.

"Bzzzzzzrrrrrtttt…." Static sounds had emitted from Reindeer Man's mouth. "Bzzzrrrt… Proteeect…. Zzzrrrrt… sleigh… zzt.."

The robots took another step back as they witnessed the deer robot's nose, which was now shattered but its tiny wiring was not snapped, suddenly spark up and glow as it began to charge up.

Mega Man's eyes grew wide, he knew what was happening. "Look out! He's about to fire another laser!!"

Immediately the three robots had ran off quite a far distance away from the corrupting robot, expecting a sudden flash of a red beam to hit them or otherwise zoom right by them at any minute!… But nothing happened. Turning their heads, the robots could only see that sparks were flying out from Reindeer Man's shattered nose, and would not fire anything else no matter how hard the robot tried. But everyone had kept their distance away from the robot, unsure of what it might do next. Reindeer Man's head was spinning more violently than it had been before, evidently bothered that it could not attack with laser beams anymore, until it finally stopped trying. Instead he had reactivated his rocket boosters, spewing out a large content of smoke and shattered pieces that had fell in. Until finally… _Booom! _Flames had suddenly burst forth from the jets again, and Reindeer Man had returned to the air with its now wobbly and uncontrollable flight path again! But this time it seemed more slightly self-controlled and dashed at the three robots, who had just managed to dodge out of the way in time. Light, Wily, Phone Man and Dandelion Man had watched in awe.

"Look out! Over there! It's coming again! Get out!!" The three robots would constantly scream as they tried their hardest to dodge out the way, Roll having the most trouble of them all and Rush often found himself having to help her.

"Woah…" Wily had uttered in surprise as he and Light watched from a safe distance. "The cables sure did a number on Reindeer Man…"

"That is why you do not throw things at robots!" Light stomped his foot. "He's completely uncontrollable now!"

"Hmph! Get away from me." Wily said, slapping Light's hand away from him. "…And really, uncontrollable you say? Well I think he's fine. He's doing just what I've reprogrammed him to do."

"No he is not!" Light responded sternly. "…I've experienced this sort of thing before. That screwdriver and the cables had short-circuited nearly all of his working systems, and now he is in error state and cannot even control himself."

Light grabbed on Wily's back, turning him around to face the scene again and directly pointed at Reindeer Man as the robot spun around in the air. "I mean, listen to him!"

"Bzzzzzzrrrrrttt…. Bzzrt… Hello! Hello!.. Bzzzrttt… Please be good! Zzzrrrt… North Pole under attaaack…" These were only a few of the random phrases that Reindeer Man had blurted out as he continued to attempt to ram into the robots below him.

Light turned to face Wily again. "Don't you see? He is speaking in completely random phrases now! He is completely glitched up and is going on a destructive rampage!"

"What are you talking about? He was always on a destructive rampage by my orders!" Wily reasoned.

"No! Before he was directly targeting my robots. Now he's purposely destroying everything that gets in his way, including your own base!" Light shook his head.

Raising an eyebrow, Wily turned around and followed the speeding deer robot with his eyes. Indeed, Reindeer Man was attempting to attack Mega Man, Rush and Roll (who was screaming very loudly in terror), but every so often he would take a break from targeting the others and fly directly into the walls, doors or machines that Wily owned and intentionally punch them or kick them a few times before flying back to resume his attack against the other robots.

Wily's eyes had expanded and he held his head in shock. "My precious castle! He really is purposely destroying it!!" Light only rolled his eyes, he couldn't believe how long it took him to realize that.

Wily's eyebrows had frowned in a rage again, and immediately he rose his head to Reindeer Man and began to shake his fist again. "Argh! Alright then, stop it! Do your job right and get THEM!"

Light's eyes had widened. "No, don't!"

This day was definitely plagued by bad luck, for Reindeer Man had heard Wily's voice this time and glared down at the two scientists. And to Reindeer Man, everything he saw was in red and everyone or anything in his sight had to be promptly destroyed. And so, igniting his rocket jets again, Reindeer Man had changed the course of his direction and had swooped down at the scientists!

"Get out!!" Light shouted as he pushed Wily and himself to the ground, and managed to get out of harm's way as Reindeer Man flew back up into the air.

"Argh, get off of me!" Wily struggled, refusing to acknowledge that Light had just saved him. Light immediately stood back up and turned to face Reindeer Man as Wily pushed himself up.

Staying put from where they stood, the two scientists had starred at the corrupted Reindeer Man, who was not the least bit happy that he had missed the doctors. But he refused to end his attack there, as long as they were in his sight, they had to be destroyed 'to protect the sleigh', according to his glitched logic. But instead of diving down to attack them, Reindeer Man's shattered nose had begun to flick in red and shoot out sparks again. But unlike the previous times that the lasers had failed him, a ball of red light had grown bigger from the socket of his nose. Light's eyes widened, he knew that Reindeer Man was charging up power.

"Look out!!" Light cried, this time grabbing onto Wily's hand and pulling him away as he ran. A jolt of red light had zoomed by, and Wily had ducked his head to avoid it. His hair didn't catch on fire this time.

"You're hurting my arm!" Wily ungratefully exclaimed.

It was then shortly after the beam had been fired that Mega Man, Rush and Roll were running up to the two doctors to catch up with them. The entire time, Phone Man and Dandelion Man had gone into hiding, but they too had decided to brave the open to come out and approach the group as well.

"He's still able to fire lasers!" Mega Man called out as he ran to the others.

"Waaaaaah!!… I'm scared, what are we gonna do?!" Dandelion Man cried and tried to hug Wily for comfort, but Wily had pushed him away.

"Look!" Roll exclaimed and pointed at Reindeer Man who was still hovering in mid air, glaring at them.

More sparks had emitted from his nose as another ball of red energy had glowed. His rockets had also used a little more fuel and Reindeer Man had begun to spin around in the air. The group below had widened their eyes in panic. Reindeer Man continued to spin faster and faster like a top, and then suddenly hundreds of beams were shot out everywhere, going in all directions and destroying nearly everything in their path! The group screamed as they ran around trying to dodge the lasers.

"We need to hide!!" Light hollered.

"Over there!!" Wily informed and pointed to a single wall in the corner where everyone could hide behind and be protected from the lasers. He ran straight for it. "Come on! Hurry up!!"

And immediately, the rest had followed after Wily, with Light, Roll, Phone Man and Dandelion Man close behind him, making sure to dodge the lasers whenever possible. Mega Man and Rush ran as fast as they could while also dodging the attacks, but their loss of energy had slowed down their movements. And even then, they were also trying to fend off Reindeer Man as Mega Man shot more bullets as the two of them ran.

Eventually, Wily, Light, Roll and Wily's two robots had ran around the corner and stopped when they were finally behind the wall. More lasers were still being shot out, and many had hit the wall that was protecting them. The most they had all felt were the rumbles of the lasers against the walls. Feeling much safer now, both Light and Wily had leaned against the wall as they tried to catch their breath. But they all knew that they were still far off being completely safe.

"Huff… puff… Roll are… you okay?…" Dr. Light gasped.

"Yes! I'm fine, but Mega Man and Rush aren't! They both took a lot of hits!" Roll cried.

Light immediately stood up. "You're right, and they're still not here yet!" He peered from behind the wall and saw that the two robots were still trying to catch up.

But shortly after, Mega Man and Rush had managed to reach the wall and had joined the others in hiding, and they too had leaned against the wall, feeling like they were about to collaspe.

"Mega Man, Rush! Here, take these E Tanks I've saved." Light exclaimed as he pulled out two small E Tanks from his inside coat pocket of his red Santa coat, and immediately handed them to the two.

"T-Thank you, Dr. Light…" Mega Man muttered, gasping, as he was handed the E Tanks and had handed the other one to Rush. Immediately the two had injected themselves with the E Tanks into some slots on the sides of their bodies, and upon doing so a small whirling sound was heard.

And almost as soon as the small tanks were emptied, their eyes had opened wide with alertness and they were now standing up straight and tall. Their energy had just been refilled, and they both breathed a sigh of relief.

"Perfect! Now I'm all set for action!" Mega Man stated while flexing.

"But what are we going to do now?" Roll asked after peering out from behind the wall, her body shaking.

She turned back to the others. "Reindeer Man is still out there and still out of control! What if he gets outside?"

"Roll is right." Mega Man said. "Reindeer Man cannot even control his own actions now. He is far too dangerous and should not be allowed out. He'll have to be…"

"…Destroyed…" Dr. Light sadly said, and the group grew quiet. Wily had only rolled his eyes and folded his arms again.

The group remained silent until Dr. Light had spoke up. "…But it is a cost we must take. The safety of the city is at stake if Reindeer Man gets outside."

"…We will have to destroy him…" He said.

All except for Wily had nodded in agreement.

"We'll need to set up a plan first." Said Rush.

"Right, and I'm afraid that we'll need everyone to join in to get it accomplished." Light recommended.

"We're in." Mega Man and Rush said immediately.

"I may not be able to do much, but I'll still try to help." Roll pitched in.

Dandelion Man and Phone Man took a step forward. "We may be considered your enemies, but we still want to help too." Said Phone Man.

"Yes," Dandelion Man agreed. "My brother and I may not be the best robots around, but we promise to still do our part."

"Good." Dr. Light said, nodding.

He then turned to Dr. Wily who had his eyes turned away from the group. "…And you, Dr. Wily?" Light had asked.

Wily glanced back at Light and sniffed. "Me? Why should I work with you? Frankly, the city would be wiped off the Earth when I do conquer the world anyhow."

"Reindeer Man would just take off one thing from my humongous to-do list…" He went back to leaning against the wall, refusing to give anymore eye contact.

"That may be so, but Reindeer Man is on a total destruction spree. He may destroy precious landmarks that you may intend to keep. And look, he's still destroying your base right now…" Light said. Wily turned and silently raised an eyebrow.

"In fact, he may even intend to kill _you_. He did almost attack you out there, did he not?"

Wily had momentarily paused and thought to himself for a few seconds, before finally groaning in defeat and turning back to directly face the group.

"Fine, fine. I'll be a part of this little 'team'." He said reluctantly.

Light nodded and had smiled a little. "…That's good. We need all the help we can get…"

"Hmph!" Wily scoffed. "Just remember, this is a temporary partnership. And I'm only in this for myself!"

Light briefly chuckled before turning serious again. "Very well."

"Everyone," Light said, turning to the group while the rumbles behind them commenced. "Now that we are all in this, we are going to need to put a plan in place. We cannot afford to have anymore mishaps."

"However, I believe that I might already have a plan in mind."

The group nodded, including Wily, as they stepped closer to listen.

"The first thing we need to think about is that we must prevent Reindeer Man from ever leaving the castle, else he will wreck havroc on Monstropolis." Light began.

"Wily," He turned to him. "For this to work, we need to know all of the possible exits that Reindeer Man could access."

"That depends…" Wily said, shrugging his shoulders.

"What do you mean 'that depends'?" Light asked.

"There is only one main entrance and exit, the front gates." Wily responded. "However you four had came in by destroying my walls…"

"Oh, that shouldn't be a problem." Light reassured.

"We didn't blowtorch any walls outside. We actually found an air duct and crawled through it, and then Rush activated his blowtorch gear once inside." He said as he stretched his sore back, making a small cracking sound in the progress. "I have a sore back to prove that…"

"Nice to hear that…" Wily sarcastically responded.

"So then, the only possible exit would be the main gates?" Light asked again.

"That is exactly right." Wily answered. "However, they are not even locked."

The group grew terribly quiet and all had starred a glance of disbelief at Wily.

"What?!" He snapped. "You people are always foiling my plans no matter what I do. Why should I even bother locking the doors then?"

Dr. Light had sighed. "Alright, alright then. Everyone please settle down…"

"Now listen," Said he. "If these gates are indeed unlocked, a small group of us will have to go and lock them. No knows what might occur if Reindeer Man were to get to those gates…"

"…And then comes our offense team… Since Reindeer Man unfortunately cannot be stopped by normal means we'll need to set up this team to fight back… But this team won't rely on offense alone, but will also fend those who cannot defend themselves."

"Well don't count me in that group." Grunted Wily. "Human strength is inferior to robots."

"Of course not." Light replied. "…Which is why I am placing the robots into the offense team."

"But…!" Roll cried.

"Except Roll. She can stay with us." Light said, having meant himself and Wily.

"B-B-But… what about us?…" Phone Man stuttered in fear as he pointed to both himself and Dandelion Man.

"You two will also be on the offense team." Light had told them.

"Whaaaaaaat?!" Dandelion Man exclaimed in a panic. "B-But we can't fight!"

"Yeah, and Reindeer Man scares us!" Phone Man added.

"We are all afraid of Reindeer Man right now…" Light answered. "However it is obvious that the two of you can fight. And since we need all the help we can get fighting against Reindeer Man, we'll need your combative assistance as well."

Both Phone Man and Dandelion Man had only gulped and nervously nodded.

"We shall work our hardest!" Mega Man said. Rush barked in agreement.

"This is all great and all…" Wily said in a demeaning tone. "But what is Light, this girl robot and I supposed to do? Sit around and watch?"

"No. Instead, we three are going to the gates to lock them." Light responded, rolling bis eyes.

"Really? I'll go with you two?" Roll curiously asked, and Light nodded.

"So, is this the plan?" Mega Man asked. "You three go to lock the gates to prevent Reindeer Man from getting out, while the rest of us stay back to fend him off?"

"Exactly." Dr. Light replied. "This may not be the safest or best of plans, but we have no choice. This is what we'll go with."

"Pffft, I'm sure _I_ could have thought of a better plan in less time…" Wily sniffed.

"We don't have time for your crap, Dr. Wily." Light snapped. "This is the best plan we can come up with to save the city. Or should I say, to save the world you hope to conquer…"

"I would ask you to stop insulting me, but fine, whatever. I'll lead the two of you to the gates." Said Wily.

"Good," Light said as he turned to face the whole group. "Now are we all ready?"

"Yes!" They all exclaimed.

"One problem though," Wily said, peering out from over the wall. "We have to get to that hall across the room to get to the gates."

"Then we'll need some protection from the robots as we run over there…" Light thought out loud.

"Well, I'm all ready to get this started!" Mega Man said. "Come on Rush, let's go distract Reindeer Man!"

"No, wait…!" Light tried to stop him.

But it was too late, for already Rush had extended out his side rocket boosters as the blue bomber climbed and stood on top of him, and immediately the reckless duo had flown out from around the corner and were flying towards Reindeer Man who had briefly stopped shooting lasers to ram into a few walls. Rush continued to soar higher and higher until he and the deer robot were around the same altitude, which Rush had hoped would help give Mega Man an advantage. The others watched from around the wall, nearly holding their breaths.

Mega Man rose his Mega Buster. "Hey Reindeer Man, I've got a gift for you!"

Literally spinning his head around 180 degrees like an owl, Reindeer Man had immediately noticed Mega Man and Rush coming straight at him, and within a few seconds of noticing him, Mega Man had shot out a dozen or so bullets from his Mega Buster. But instead of dodging them like any sensible robot would do by programmed instinct, Reindeer Man had instead ignited his engines and went full blast straight at the bullets, attempting to ram them away! But rather, his antlers and face got multiple shots to them and Reindeer Man had changed his direction and quickly shot out another laser beam! Rush flew off to dodge it as Mega Man quickly ducked out of the way.

"Woah!…" Mega Man exclaimed as he caught his footing. "We have to be careful and quick Rush!" Rush barked and nodded.

"Bzzzzrrrtt… Ho ho ho… bzzrrrt…" Reindeer Man echoed. "ZZzrrrt… Happy holidayzzzzzzrrrttt…"

And thus, their previous battle had resumed, but now with the aid of Rush and now entirely in the air as more beams of light and white bullets were fired back and forth. Light and the others were still peering out from around the corner, and Light did not look very amused…

"Rrrrrrrrr, damn it Mega Man… We were supposed to wait until the time was right…" He growled in frustration.

"That means we'll have to cross the room right now!" Said Roll.

"Exactly," Light nodded and turned to Phone Man and Dandelion Man. "Alright you two, you are going to defend us as we cross over to the hall."

"U-Us?!…" They both stammered.

Light had given them a serious look, and Wily had merely glared at them.

"A-A-Alright… we'll go!" Phone Man stuttered.

"Perfect. But knowing them, we'll probably die out there before we even get there half-way…" Wily said rather negatively.

"Dr. Wily, please…" Light responded.

He sighed. "Alright then, let's make this count. Wily, you lead the way and Phone Man and Dandelion Man will run beside us from both sides."

Wily slowly nodded as he took his place, not without briefly stretching his legs first, and Phone Man and Dandelion Man both reluctantly saluted and surrounded the now huddled group.

"Wily, you may do the honors. Whenever you're ready…" Light said.

And immediately, Wily had sprinted way ahead of them. "Fine, I choose now!"

"Hey!!" Both Light and Roll shouted as they and the two robots ran after him.

Eventually they had managed to safely get back together and briefly had gotten back into their position, while Phone Man and Dandelion Man tried their best to 'protect' the group, but were instead running side by side by covering their heads as lasers and bullets were fired from all over the room.

"Bah! You said 'anytime!'…" Wily rolled his eyes when the others had caught up. Light and Roll didn't reply.

The group continued to run off as fast as they could possibly go, and obviously made the greatest care in this dangerous journey. Already they were half-way across the room and Wily had reassured them that they were almost there. They were all trying to keep their cool as they ran, all except for Phone Man and Dandelion Man, who were still running blindly and were constantly whining. They made absolutely no real effort to defend the group at all, which obviously the group were not impressed at.

"Come on!" Light exclaimed. "At least try to use your weapons! This is a dangerous situlation and we have no other form of defense!"

But Phone Man and Dandelion Man only kept on running with their heads ducked low. "Aaahhhh! We're sorry, we're sorry!!" They both whined.

"Look, we're almost there!" Wily called, pointing at the hall. The group was just several feet away, and they began to run faster with anticipation.

More bullers and laser beams had came their way by chance, but this time luck was on their side, and soon enough they had reached the cover of the hall and had skidded to a halt to catch their breath. Both scientists had sighed with relief, Roll began to cheer but Phone Man and Dandelion Man were both still whining in panic.

"Ah… hah… we're here!…" Light breathed, wiping sweat from his forehead.

"We still have to hurry to the gates… We're not done yet." Wily said.

"Yes," Light said, nodding. He glanced at the two robots huddling together, shivering with fright. "Now you two, you stay behind and help Mega Man and Rush."

"But, d-do we have t-t-to?" Phone Man shook. "Just running to this hall was frightening enough as it is!"

"We can handle the rest. But Mega Man and Rush need as much help as possible." Light had told them. "You've shown us before that you're capable of fighting. You two are fit to help them."

"No we're not!" Dandelion Man cried.

"Oh will you two just quit it?!" Wily shouted directly at them, making the two robots jump with a high-pitched yelp.

"Unless you two go help my arch-nemesis, I'll give you a lesson in pain that not even that corrupted, flying machinery can compare to!" The scientist threatened.

"Aaaahhh! Y-Yes sir! We're going, we're going!!" They both screamed and ran out into the battlefield as fast as they could go.

Dr. Light and Roll had watched them run off with perplexed stares, watching them hurry out and occasionally trip over rubble as they went. Wily had stood around waiting for the scientist and the girl robot, tapping his foot impatiently.

"Well, are you two coming?!" He demanded.

The duo shook their heads back into focus, and turned around to Wily and both gave him a nod.

"Good! Now hurry, it's this way!" He exclaimed and ran ahead of them again down the hall, much to the annoyance of the two.

"Hold up!!" Light called as both he and Roll ran after him.

Back to the destructive scene between Mega Man, Rush and Reindeer Man, the two had continued their constant dodging and returning of firing projectiles. Lasers were fired everywhere uncontrollably, and only Mega Man seemed focused on aiming while Rush tried his best to guide his blue bomber ally. And things were definitely on their side, for Rush's quick thinking and even quicker flight had made dodging easier, not to mention chasing after the just as fast Reindeer Man, and thus Mega Man had found it easier to shoot back at him, and even managed to get a few shots in. But not everything was going in their favor, for Reindeer Man was still as fast as ever, and Mega Man still often missed his target. There were even a few times when Rush had trouble flying after the deer robot. Still, they never did gave up and a look of determination was very evident in their eyes. But in the same light, they were also tiring out again as well. And Rush's rockets were starting to lose energy quickly, compared to Reindeer Man who seemingly had an endless supply of it…

Eventually, Rush had led the two a short, safe distance away from Reindeer Man and gave the whole area a brief overlook, while also starring back at Reindeer Man.

Mega Man growled in frustration. "He really is fast… We're going to need some help…"

He glanced down and scanned the disturbed area below them. "Where are those two robots?… Oh! There they are!"

Rush barked in acknowledgement and had immediately swooped down to the two robots as they came onto the battlefield, while Reindeer Man kept himself in the air. Upon reaching the ground, Mega Man had jumped off of Rush and Rush had stood on the floor to give his boosters a quick rest. Dandelion Man and Phone Man stopped in front of them, and appeared as if they were trying to brave up, but it was evident that they were still shaking in their feet.

"Good, you're both here! Are the other three at the gates?" Mega Man asked them.

They both shook their heads. "Not yet, but they're hurrying…"

"Well, I'm glad that you're both here. We're both having some trouble, but we can do this together!" Said Mega Man positively.

"Trouble?… We were afraid of that…" They both pouted.

Rush's ears had perked up and he peered up into the sky, only for his eyes to pop in shock. "Look out!!"

Quickly glancing up with surprise, everyone had witnessed that Reindeer Man had decided to resume his attack and was now rocketing straight at them. Mega Man had gasped and Phone Man and Dandelion Man had both screamed as they hugged each other in terror. But Mega Man had spent no more second, and immediately reacted to the situlation.

Rush sprang out his boosters as Mega Man hopped on him. "Get out of the way!" He exclaimed to the other two robots.

Rush took off to the air as fast as he could, and Phone Man and Dandelion Man tried to get out of harm's way, and managed to jump out as Reindeer Man had missed and crashed into the floor and had tumbled a short distance away. Both Mega Man and Rush had watched in awe from above and Phone Man and Dandelion Man kept on running off a farther distance away, until they finally stopped and turned around to observe what had happened. Indeed, Reindeer Man had crashlanded into the floor, but had managed to stand himself up, revealing that the other half of his face had been scratched off, and glared at all of his surroundings. Both Phone Man and Dandelion Man had shuddered at the sight of his face, but Mega Man had wasted no more time and began to fire more shots at Reindeer Man, which he managed to dodge and fire lasers back in return. And thus, the battle had continued as the two robots had watched them. But for once, Dandelion Man and Phone Man had stopped shuddering as they observed the fight, looking pretty amazed as they watched it unfold…

"…We really ought to help him, Brother…" Phone Man said.

"Whaaaat?! But we'll be creamed!" Dandelion Man protested.

"But we have to help! Master Wily may have threatened us into it, but…" Phone Man said.

"…You're right… We have to help Mega Man…" Dandelion Man nodded.

He nodded again. "…Let's go Brother!"

"Right behind you!" Phone Man ushered as both robots ran back into the field, preparing themselves to fight back.

Dandelion Man had ran up ahead first, rising up his arm weaponry that looked very similar to that of a revolver gun, he skiddied to a stop and hollered out to Reindeer Man, and got his attention. Dandelion Man no longer tried to show fear, but had hoisted his gun arm straight up into the air in preperation.

"Have a taste of my Dandelion Rain-Gun!!" He cried out.

And immediately his arm had whirled around into a circle, shooting a hundred or so yellow pellets up into the air at a rapid pace! Reindeer Man had halted and hovered as he watched the pellets fly up, which had also started to expand in size the higher they went, until… _Pop! _The small pellets had suddenly popped open into gigantic balls of white fluff, very much like the kind that Dandelion Man used to attack Mega Man and friends previously! The balls of fluff immediately fell down like hail and targeted Reindeer Man, who remained in place…

…And the fluff balls had just bounced off of him, much like rubber balls, and hardly made a single mark…

Dandelion Man looked quite surprised and Phone Man couldn't help but sigh with disappointment.

"No offense, but Master Wily was right. Your weapon really is pathetic…" Phone Man uttered.

"Uwhaaaa…" Dandelion Man moaned, shaking his head.

However, as light and fluffy as the balls of white were, Reindeer Man's corrupted mindset had made him deeply angered to be showered by even the softest of things, and the oblivious Dandelion Man was the center of his aggressive attention! Abruptly, Reindeer Man had ignited his engines again and rocketed straight towards Dandelion Man with his antlers prod out, and smacked right into the poor bud robot and sent him flying towards a wall!

"NNNOOOOOO-" Dandelion Man screamed, cut off when he crashed into the metal wall.

Phone Man raised his arms in alarm. "Oh no, Dandelion Man!"

But he had stopped, and his metallic eyebrows had frowned. "Grrr… Don't worry Dendelion Man! I'll avenge you!"

And without a second of delay, Phone Man had begun to punch in several of the numbers of his chest, about to use his Signal Transmitter weapon… Until…

"AAAAAAGGgggGGGGrrrrrrHHHHH!!!…." He suddenly buzzed, and immediately collapsed backwards. His weapon had failed him yet again.

Mega Man and Rush had been watching the two of them from above the entire time, and they both sighed in disbelief before resuming their own fight against Reindeer Man. And the Mega Buster bullets and nose laser beams had commenced…

* * *

The walls and ceilings had rattled and banged from all of the continuing commotion as the trio of the two scientists and girl robot hurried quickly to the unlocked, main doors as Wily led the way. Unfortunately old age was starting to get the better of the doctors, and every so often Light and Wily had to stop occasionally to catch their breath, and Roll tried to wait patiently for them. But they were the same too, the duo of scientists were just as impatient as she was to get to the gates. And so after a few seconds of a quick rest, they would be off again as the hall continued to rumble and the lights above them flickered on and off. They went straight down halls, around corners, took many turns along the way, and even Wily had to halt a couple of times to catch his bearings. To say the very least, for a castle built by two lazy robots in a manner of two weeks, the corridors were as maze-like as Wily's previous castles before. But since this base of his was still pretty new, Wily did feel a little lost several times, much to the dismay of Light and Roll.

But it wasn't just the mazes and stopping occasionally that hindered them, but also the quakes and shaking of the castle that happened so frequently, obviously caused by the distant battle between Mega Man and Reindeer Man…

"Ooofffmp!" Light cried as he tripped and fell to the floor by one of the quakes. The other two stopped for him.

"Oh no! Dr. Light, are you okay?" Roll asked him as she helped him up.

"I'm… fine…" He grunted as he stood back up. "But we still need to hurry!…"

"Wily," He said, turning to the spiky haired scientist beside him. "…I don't mean to doubt you, but are you sure we are almost there? I feel like we've been going in circles…"

Wily sniffed. "Hmph. We _had _been going in circles. But I can assure you that we've taken the right path this time…"

"How can you be so certain of that?" Light asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Because, we're practically already here." Wily said, turning around and pointing directly to two very large, metal doors in the corner

Light's and Roll's eyes both widened. "Oh…!" They both exclaimed, and smiled in relief.

Dr. Wily had closed his eyes and folded his arms. "I believe a thank you is in order…"

But rather, Light and Roll just ran passed him to the doors without a single word.

Wily had fumed before following them. "Why thank you Dr. Wily, your help was _so_ appreciated…" He told himself sarcastically.

The metal doors were indeed very large in both width and height, making the three characters feel very small as they nearly arched their necks to stare at awe at the gates. And they certainly looked very heavy and possibly even indestructible. But if Wily had said that these doors were unlocked, they would still have to lock it to ensure the safety of Monstropolis. But as they observed every corner and side of the doors, Light and Roll began to ponder how they could possibly even lock these doors. As far as they knew, no locks, buttons or anything else can be seen on the doors. Of course Wily might know for sure, but they still felt rather perplexed by these doors that almost towered above them…

"Wily, how exactly would one lock these doors?…" Light asked, still starring at them.

Wily had sighed and smacked his face in disbelief. "Must I do everything around here?…"

Calmly, Dr. Wily had approached the side of the door and had reached his arms out for something above him, which both Light and Roll had not noticed before. He had reached out for what appeared to be a very large plank of wood in width, hooked onto a hinge, and grasped onto it and carefully slid it down until the plank had blocked the doors and locked it in place within a latch. It was a batten used to block doors to prevent them from opening, in a sense 'locking' them.

Wily turned around and clapped the dust off of his hands. "There you go. All locked."

"…What?…" Light ushered in disbelief. "_That _is how you lock the door? _That_ is going to stand up to Reindeer Man's strength when he potentially flies through these halls?…"

"Hopefully not…" Roll quietly murmured, hoping that Reindeer Man won't come.

Wily rolled his eyes. "Well, what were you expecting? This castle was only built in two weeks by those two lazy, good-for-nothing robots. This base is only half finished!"

Light sighed. "Fine, fine… It'll have to do."

A sudden explosion was heard from the battle room, making the ceiling rumble and the halls shake again as the three tried to catch their footing, which they managed to do.

"It doesn't sound so good out there…" Roll whined, covering her head.

"We have no choice but to go back…" Light said. "We've fulfilled our purpose here…"

"But what will we do next?" Roll asked, which made Wily feel even more unappreciated for his help.

"I am not so sure…" Light admitted. "But if anything, we ought to return to the others now…"

And thus, he had turned around and was about to leave the area, when suddenly he stopped. He had felt something under his right foot on the ground, something that felt hard and heavy to move. Moving away his leg and looking down below him, his eyes had widened with wonderment. Roll and Wily came around to also have a look at what he had stepped on. On the ground was what appeared to be a robotic, red arm. And in its hand, was a circular saw…

Light had placed his thumb over his chin. "This arm seems familiar…"

"Could this be…?"

"Metal Man's arm?" Roll pondered aloud.

"Yes it is." Wily answered, sounding rather impatient. "Can we just go now?"

"Hold on," Light hushed him. "I am curious. What in the world is Metal Man's lone arm doing here?"

"Feh," Wily crossed his arms. "My creations have spare parts too you know. But I suppose I have just decided to keep some of them to myself…"

"This arm must have fallen behind while we were moving the other spare parts to the storage room…" Wily uttered as he picked up the arm carefully for a closer inspection.

"Well, I'm sure it'll be thrown in with the rest in no time…" He finished.

"Wait!" Light said. "…Perhaps we can use that."

Wily raised an eyebrow. "What exactly do you mean?"

"I have a hunch…" Light stated.

"About what?" Wily asked again.

But Dr. Light had already started to run down the hall in a hurry.

"There's no time to explain! Bring that arm and hurry!" He called.

"Hey!" Wily screamed and ran after him. "I'm supposed to lead the way!!"

Roll had waited a bit watching them run off without her.

"….Wait!!" She finally exclaimed and followed them. "Wait for me! I don't want to be alone!!"

Meanwhile back in the crumbling room where Mega Man and Reindeer Man had fought, total destruction had commenced as it always had been, but was notably starting to slow down. The walls still cracked and threatened to fall, the ceiling was still thinking about toppling onto the floor, and the floor itself was still being raised up and down like a jagged hill, providing more obstacles that got in the way of everyone. It was like this before, but was obviously worsening now as the combat had went on for longer. But as I, the narrator of this tale, had already stated before, the return of lasers and bullets were starting to slow down, which was the really only slightly noticeable difference in the whole ordeal. Yes, even Reindeer Man in his glitched, corrupted state, was also feeling fatigued by the duration of the whole fight. But neither was also not willing to give up either. And thus, the battle had continued nonetheless…

Rush had been flying around the entire room in a circle, trying to get a better few of the area and to see what Reindeer Man, who was flying around the center of it all, might do next. But just as the other two robots, Rush was also starting to tire out and his fuel was quickly running out and his jets had no longer ignited as powerfully as they once were. His flight was slowing down, putting the already tiring out Mega Man at a greater disadvantage. Just how much longer would this last, and who will raise as the victor? They both pondered this to themselves, but shook away the thoughts seeing as they had to concentrate on their surroundings…

"Mega Man, my fuel is almost out…" Rush informed. "We will have to land soon…"

"Just hold on a second Rush." Said Mega Man, squinting his eyes at Reindeer Man. Rush nodded, sensing what Mega Man had meant by that.

"I can give one more boost…" Rush offered. "But after that, my last remaining fuel will be completely depleted."

Mega Man nodded, understanding. "I got'cha Rush. Just one more should do it…"

And he raised his Mega Buster and widened his eyes. "Now Rush!!"

Flashing his teeth much like an aggressive dog would by instinct, Rush had used up his last remaining juice to fire up his rockets and the two had flew straight towards Reindeer Man! Reindeer Man had quickly noticed and also fuelled his jets and rushed towards them as well. And they continued to dash towards each other in a beeline, refusing to stop whatsoever, and Mega Man had waited idly for the right moment to strike. But in the same light, Rush was indeed starting to quickly lose that last bit of his fuel, and his boost had noticeably started to slow down, which Mega Man had immediately recognized.

"We are slowing down!…" Rush reported. "Mega Man, you'd best do this now…"

"Right!" Mega Man exclaimed and begun to take aim. "Take th-"

But Reindeer Man had suddenly changed directions and fired another laser beam towards them!

"Look out!!" Mega Man cried as he ducked.

Reacting quickly despite his slowed speed, Rush had immediately dodged the incoming beam by swooping downwards with great handling, just as the beam of red light had zoomed past Mega Man's backside! Opening his eyes and glancing around, Mega Man had saw that Rush had managed to successfully move out of the way… but they were still descending, nearly hovering, downwards towards the piles of rubble and uneven floor beneath them. Moving swiftly, Mega Man raised his Mega Buster and then returned several shots at Reindeer Man. But the deer robot's swirling flight pattern plus their altitude lowering had made Mega Man unable aim well and had ended up missing Reindeer Man entirely again. He looked down and saw that they were even closer to the floor now.

"I'm sorry Mega Man…" Said Rush. "But that last boost really drained me all out. The most I can do now is take us back to the ground…"

"Then we'll just have to try from there…" Mega Man said, peering up at Reindeer Man and squinting his eyes back at him. They were doing so well before…

The two had continued to descend closer and closer to the piles of debris below, whilst cautiously starring back at Reindeer Man, to see if he would make anymore moves. But luckily for the duo of allies, Reindeer Man had only begun his circular flight path again, and rammed his antlers into walls to badly dent them. Shortly after, Rush's paws had extended out as they touched the floor and Mega Man jumped off of him just as Rush' boosters retracted back inside of him. And almost as soon as they were grounded, Dandelion Man, whose helmet had nearly cracked open after crashing into that wall, had ran up to them with a nearly unconscious Phone Man on his back. The dandelion robot had given the duo a glance of concern.

"Dandelion Man," Mega Man acknowledged. "How is Phone Man?"

"The same," Replied Dandelion Man. "He's completely out. He'll need some repair work…"

"Darn…" Mega Man uttered. "We desperately need more help now…"

Dandelion Man had shook his head. "I can't help, I tried. My weapon is completely useless…"

"Then… has Dr. Light and the others returned?" The blue bomber asked hopefully.

"No…" Dandelion Man answered. "I haven't seen or heard anything since they left…"

"Great… Just what we need…" Mega Man said in frustration, as he peered up and watched Reindeer Man still flying about in a circle for the time being.

"Isn't there anything else Rush could do to help?" Dandelion Man suggested.

"I have many abilities that could help Mega Man…" Rush had told him. "However, some of them cost extra fuel to be functional, and others won't work on this terrain. And since my jets are all out of energy, I can only provide so little for Mega Man now…"

'There is 'Rush Coil', however…" Rush mentioned. "But…"

"But what?" Dandelion Man asked in desperation. "If it can do the job, why not?"

"Indeed, it could greatly help…" Rush answered. "The 'Rush Coil' can propel Mega Man high enough into the air to shoot back at Reindeer Man. But I detect that Reindeer Man's energy is still pretty high…"

"Mega Man would have to repeatedly be propelled and shoot multiple times to even stand a chance…"

"However, there can be risks with that…" Rush concluded, and Mega Man had nodded in agreement.

"Flying in the air gave us the advantage of staying high up above the ground for long periods of time…" Mega Man had explained further.

"Well… can it still be done? We have to do something!" Dandelion Man exclaimed.

"It can be done…" Mega Man responded. "But this strategy would work better if I had a better weapon…"

"And we don't even have the slightest clue what Reindeer Man is vulnerable to…" He sighed, glancing back up at Reindeer Man.

Standing around silently, the trio of robots had observed the random and destructive flight path of Reindeer Man, unusual that he was keeping to himself rather than attacking them on the ground. But of course, this would be a good time to quickly think up a new plan. The 'Rush Coil' strategy seemed good, but risky seeing as Mega Man didn't have a better weapon on hand… And Mega Man had growled in frustration.

"Rush, spring out your coil. This is the only option we have." Mega Man said.

Rush nodded and was about to open up a small latch on his back…

"WAIT!!" Called a voice from a distance away.

The trio had flashed their heads immediately to the right; their eyes wide open with alertness. And from what they could see emerging from the hall several feet away, was Dr. Light, Wily and Roll returning! The trio of robots had smiled with hopefulness, but their smiles had abruptly been wiped off by a startling sound of rockets being ignited. Swiftly turning around, Mega Man and co had seen that Reindeer Man's attention had been brought up by that out cry and was now heading straight for the group!

"Get out!!" Mega Man shouted as he sprinted into a run and directly fired bullets at Reindeer Man!

The group had immediately halted by Mega Man's warning, and looked up and gasped to see Reindeer Man's antlers pointed towards them! But miraculously, Reindeer Man was close enough for Mega Man to properly aim, and several shots of bullets had crashed into Reindeer Man's chest! It shrieked a buzz of static before turning tail and returned to the air to continue flying around the interior in a circular pattern. The group of scientists, plus Roll, had all breathed a sigh of relief just as Mega Man, Rush and Dandelion Man approached them.

"Are you alright?" Mega Man asked them, and everyone but Wily had responded with a simple yes.

But then he and the other robots had noticed the red arm in Dr. Light's hands, and became perplexed by it.

"Dr. Light," Mega Man couldn't help but ask. "What is that arm, and why are you carrying it?"

"No time to explain!" Light told him. "This arm is the Metal Blade weapon! We want you to use it against Reindeer Man!"

Mega Man placed a finger on his chin. "Metal Man's weapon? But-"

"Just equip it!" Light, Wily and Roll had all ushered.

Mega Man had quickly stopped with the questions and was handed the red arm weaponry. Immediately he had unscrewed his Mega Buster weapon and handed it to Dr. Light, before screwing in the other arm… And almost immediately as it was fully screwed in, the arm had flashed into the color brown, and the rest of Mega Man had became from light blue and blue, to yellow and brown. The Metal Blade weapon had been equipped, and already he could feel its energy pulsating.

The rest had smiled, now with hope in their eyes, before turning around and starring back at Reindeer Man.

"Okay Mega Man," Said Light. "Hop on Rush and-"

"I am all out of jet energy." Rush interrupted.

"Whaaaat?!" Light and Roll had both cried.

"However, I can still provide my coil ability… It might help a little." Rush reassured them. And reassured they were, but only slightly.

Dr. Light had nodded and took another glance at Reindeer Man. "It will have to do then…"

"You will have to make this count…" He told Mega Man, who had nodded.

"Uh everyone? I don't mean interrupt… But here comes Reindeer Man!!" Dr. Wily shouted as he pointed to the incoming robot.

The others had turned around and gasped. Dandelion Man had accidentally dropped Phone Man and shook in fear.

"Mega Man!" Light turned to the now 'yellow' bomber. "You must act now! Rush, you too!!"

Both had nodded, and a challenging grin had came over Mega Man's face.

"Right away!" Mega Man exclaimed and then turned to Rush. "C'mon Rush, let's get this finished!"

Rush barked twice and followed after Mega Man as they both ran back to the center of the destroyed battlefield, this time showing new positive determination that they will win the fight with this new weapon equipped. As they ran, Rush had activated the latch on his back which had opened wide, and immediately a small, spring-loaded platform had popped out instantly, and swayed around as he ran with his ally to the center of the room. Reindeer Man had looked down and noticed that the duo had returned for more, but instead he had remained in the air and watched them carefully, as random holiday-related thoughts had processed through his mind as they always did.

Rush soon had skidded to a halt, now in the center of the wrecked room, and lowered his body closely to the ground in preparation as he made himself become sturdy, and the coil sticking out of his back had stopped wobbling and straightened. Then backing up a little, Mega Man had ran forward again and powerfully leaped up into the air! His feet landed on the spring and he was instantly propelled up into the air! Higher and higher he soared in a straight line, building up momentum as he went. Reindeer Man had immediately taken notice and had ignited his boosters and had started to circle around Mega Man's body from a short distance as the yellow bomber climbed higher up into the air. Rush looked up from the ground, calculating the distance and speed of Mega Man to himself.

And the others, had watched on in total amazement, their mouths nearly dropping at the sight of the height he was sailing at. But Dr. Light looked on with a serious expression; he felt one more thing had to be done…

He took a large step forward and hollered as loudly as he possibly could, "Mega Man! Aim for the antlers!!"

Dr. Light had feared that Mega Man might have not heard him, considering how far their distance apart was, but Mega Man had acknowledged the suggestion and had heard it clearly. Reindeer Man had then continued to spin around Mega Man, as if he was a tornado and that Mega Man was in the eye of it. However, he was merely building momentum, and shortly after he had changed his direction and began to rocket towards the yellow bomber in a rage! Mega Man kept on soaring higher, seemingly not willing to react to Reindeer Man's sudden switch…

That was, until another small smile had came…

"HyyyyYAAAAAHHHH!!" Mega Man spun around and had released a gigantic circular saw from his hand!

Flung much like a Frisbee disk, a razor sharp saw made of solid metal had flew out swiftly and twirled around in a rapid motion! It defied all gravity, and continued to fly faster and faster until it has or was hit by something. Reindeer Man's red eyes had shined, eying the flying disk that was coming straight for his head. But instead of dodging, he had flown towards it much like he had done before to the Mega Buster's bullets, corruptibly believing that the saw will deal him no harm, or at least not a lot. Both robot and projectile continued to go after each other, never changing directions or stopping. They kept going and going, everyone held their breaths…

Then, the saw had passed by Reindeer Man. He kept on flying, seemingly unaffected.

…Until his antlers had fallen off his head…

And at first, Reindeer Man still seemed to be unaffected by this unexpected new change to his appearance. But then almost as suddenly as his antlers got sliced off, Reindeer Man had started to sway up and down, left to right much to his confusion. And it continued, and progressed into worse swaying. Each passing second had made had worsened as Reindeer Man found that he could not even turn to the direction he wanted to go. His rocket jets now felt too powerful for him to handle, and Reindeer Man was now waving around in the air. His flight could no longer be controlled, and was three times worse than before when he had initially short-circuited. He tried to calculate the problem and tried to find a solution as his boosters pushed him faster and father…

And the last thing that he had probably seen, was the metal wall at the end of his uncontrollable journey. Reindeer Man had crashed into a wall again and had immediately fallen to the floor, and landed onto the ground with a gigantic thud. And there he had laid still, barely being able to move by his own free will, but was jerking around as his systems began to crash all over again.

Light and all of the others had gasped in awe, both watching Reindeer Man's body that started to spew smoke again, and at Mega Man as he slowly began to come down from the air to the ground.

"W-what has happened?!" Roll asked, her mouth dropping.

"Reindeer Man's antlers aren't just for holiday show…" Light had explained, watching Reindeer Man's body from their distance. "…It also enables him to steer in flight…"

"So… By cutting away his antlers, he lost control and crash landed?" Roll asked, and Light had nodded.

"Look, here comes Mega Man!" Dandelion Man had exclaimed, pointing at Mega Man as he descended down.

Farther and farther the yellow bomber had went, his arms still up in the air and his metallic feet nearing the ground of rubble and tiled flooring below. The rest had watched him carefully fall and land safely on the floor onto his two feet with a short thud. But immediately as he had landed, the yellow bomber had quickly ducked down and his detectors had calculated the exact, still position of the fallen Reindeer Man, and his eyes had widened with realization as the answer had shortly came to him. Three blades had then appeared in Mega Man's hand, ready to be thrown when he was ready…

And then, he leaped up into the air abruptly!… and immediately saw where Reindeer Man was laying down, almost completely motionless.

Reindeer Man continued to lay where he was, jerking occasionally and unable to freely move. Either it was because his limbs were damaged, his antlers lost or of the systems inside him locking up. But one system, corrupted as with the rest of him, remained on. And with it, Reindeer Man could sense that he was about to be targeted again. He hastily tried to move his limbs but to no avail, even tried to turn his head so that he could fire a laser beam, but he couldn't do that either. He was completely immobile…

And as Mega Man had prepared the saws in his hand, he had also taken a very brief moment for one last thought of the consequences of destroying Reindeer Man. It'll save the city, but also disappoint those children that Dr, Light wanted to help… Those unfortunate children who were supposed to smile from a happy surprise…

"…I'm sorry…" He muttered.

He had twirled his body around into a short spin, and three more circular saws had been released from his finger tips, dashing madly towards their befallen target! Light and others had held their breaths yet again, knowing that this was a critical point in time; even Mega Man had clamped his jaws shut to avoid disturbing this moment that everyone had anticipated. Reindeer Man' systems had beeped loudly to his attention, telling him that the razor blades were only several inches away from him! Again he tried to shake and move his body around, desperately trying to get himself to do anything, something…!

Until…

_SHING. TING. DING…_

His jerking limbs had dropped to the ground, even his head had stopped moving from his shaking. Two razor sharp blades had just cut through him, and were now sticking out from his back, while another one was jammed into one of his jets. And shortly after that, his systems had crashed yet again, now all at the same time. Reindeer Man's body had shook again, now violently as his eyes flickered on and off and thousands of sparks flew out of his nose socket. Light had started to emit from his slice marks, indicating the destructive activity that was going on inside of him. And all that while, all of his thoughts and memories had been completely overwritten by millions of zeroes and ones going through his robotic mind in a unorganized manner… He could no longer think or say anything in his free will anymore either…

However, as miraculous as it was, Reindeer Man was allowed a few seconds to mutter a few words…

"Bzzzzrrrrrrrrrrrrrrttttttt… Merry Christmas… zzzrttt… to all…"

His glowing red eyes had stopped functioning and had shut down.

"Zzzztttt… and to all a good year…"

A fiery explosion had then ruptured from Reindeer Man's body, sending a nasty blast of flames that went in multiple directions! Mega Man had quickly jumped out of the way, while all of the others had covered their eyes from the blinding mass of bright scarlet and yellow, while what felt like a gust of wind had flashed by them, making the scientists' coats rapidly beat about behind them as the group tried to stand their ground to avoid being knocked over.

…Then, it had stopped, almost as soon as it had started. And the room became terribly silent, all except for several pieces of debris breaking off and falling to the ground, and of flames crackling in the distance…

And this silence just continued to grow as the people and robots remained still and quiet, seemingly too afraid to move, speak or even to open their eyes. But rather, Dr. Light would be the first to cautiously open his eyes to the new scene of the destroyed castle. And he was met with a deep sadness and disappointment.

"…You may open your eyes now… It is all over…" He had sadly told the others.

Listening to him yet still somewhat fearful, Roll, Dandelion Man and Wily had all opened their eyes. And each of their reactions were different. Wily had screamed to see that his castle was so badly damaged that it would have to be demolished. Dandelion Man had whined about his and Phone Man's construction had been a waste of time and energy. But Roll had shared the same opinion with Dr. Light, and she too had sadly stared at the remains of Reindeer Man - his body parts were now scattered everywhere, along with his chips, wires, and nuts and bolts.

It was shortly then that both Mega Man, still yellow and brown, and Rush had emerged from the rubble and had slowly approached the shocked group. Both of them looked pretty fine physically, but like the others had also looked on with sadness. Mega Man had eyed the ground with faded eyes, and Rush's ears had flopped down.

Sighing to himself, Dr. Light had taken a few steps forward and approached a burnt, brown circular object that was a short distance away from them, and had carefully knelt down and picked it up into his arms. It was Reindeer Man's head, or at least what was left of it. The bearded doctor had sadly looked at it as the others approached from behind and had also peered at it from over Light's shoulder. Even Wily and Dandelion Man, who had previously complained about the state of the castle, had felt saddened at this sight. Surprising for Wily, really.

Gloomily, Light had turned around to face the others as he petted the robotic head with affection.

"…Alright… Let's retrieve his parts and go home…" He told them.

"Go home?…" Roll asked, nearly frowning. "Aren't we going to rebuild Reindeer Man in time for the sleigh ride?"

Dr. Light had sadly shook his head. "No Roll," He said. "It is far too late now. It would take me months to rebuild him."

"And tomorrow is Christmas day… It'll be midnight in a few more hours…" Mega Man had added.

Roll looked disappointed. "Is Christmas cancelled then?…"

"There will still be people celebrating it. But I don't… think we will…" Dr. Light responded.

His lips began to quiver and he slouched over. "…Months of hard work, all gone… Oh those poor children, Reindeer Man and I were supposed to bring smiles to their faces…"

"…I've failed them… for sure…" He uttered.

The robots had witnessed Light shudder at the thought of disappointing those children, and understandingly had also frowned with the doctor. However there was but one robot who stood by the side of Light who had felt a little perplexed by all of this, namely the red robotic dog Rush as he sat by Light's heel. Actually, he wasn't all that confused and could perfectly understand why his creator looked like on the verge of tears almost. But rather the robot dog was trying to calculate several things that had bothered his mind. There was Dr. Light, greatly upset over the 'death' of Reindeer Man that he had been caring for with the greatest affection since he had revealed him to his other robots. Never had Dr. Light showed this much concern and sadness over his other robots, not even to his two own 'children', Mega Man and Roll. Rush had been trying to think of a reason why the doctor cared more about Reindeer Man… Until, it had hit him. Perhaps it was those unfortunate children around the world that Dr. Light wanted to help in such an unusual way, to go as far as to create Reindeer Man. And by the death of Reindeer Man, Dr. Light would have no other way to visit those children this holiday season. Could that have been the actual reason all along? As Rush wondered more about this, he had soon found himself feeling a compelling urging to do something. Something that he felt like he had to do at all costs…

…It was decided then…

"Dr. Light," Barked Rush.

"I will go with you."

The others had glanced down at Rush, unsure by what he meant. "What?" Dr. Light asked.

A clever smile had came to Rush's expression. "You need a flying robot to pull the sleigh, don't you?"

Light's eyes widened with surprise, and he nearly dropped Reindeer Man's head in the process, but managed to catch it. "…Really? …Are you sure?"

"If you can refuel me and…" Rush began.

He gulped. "…Remodel my boosters… then perhaps I can do it!" Rush never did liked the concept of being remodelled.

"For the children and you!"

"Oh, Rush!" Dr. Light smiled and ran in to hug the robotic dog, much to Rush's surprise.

He petted him softly. "And it can be done in time!…"

He stood up, still smiling but also still a little sad. "…We may have lost Reindeer Man…But with Rush, my goal of surprising the children can be done!"

Rush had wagged his tail, and the other robots had all smiled, happy to see that a solution had been found.

But of them all, Roll was smiling from ear to ear and began to hop around excitedly. "Hurray! Everyone is happy again! We'll be able to host our Christmas party too!"

And everyone, at least almost everyone, had chuckled.

"Well then, let's hurry and find Reindeer Man's parts. It's going to be a big night soon." Dr. Light had suggested, about to turn around to begin the search.

"Wait a minute!" Mega Man said. "Isn't there one last thing we must do?"

The yellow bomber had turned and starred at Dr. Wily, who had been standing a very short distance away with his arms folded. And almost as soon as Mega Man had pointed it out, everyone else had also glanced at Dr. Wily. His eyes darted around as they continued to stare back at him.

"What, oh this again? " Wily doubtfully asked. "Right… let's see, how was it done again? Oh yes…"

He immediately dropped to his knees and held his hands together and began to beg. "Please, forgive me! I am a changed man; I'm being honest this time! Please don't send me back to jail!!"

He stopped and sat up as he opened his eyes. "Seriously though, I didn't even try to take over the world this time!"

"That may be so, but you were planning to. And you did escape from jail, not to mention that you tried to kill us again." Mega Man had replied. "Sorry Dr. Wily, you are under arr-"

"Wait." Dr. Light spoke up, and everyone had paused.

"Dr. Wily did kept his promise and helped us. And without him, we would have never found the Metal-Blade…" Light said.

"I think he deserves a chance to celebrate the holidays, with us."

"What?!" Mega Man exclaimed. Wily, Rush and Roll looked just as surprised as he did.

"It is Christmas, a time for family and friends, is it not?" Light had said.

"It is the least we can do for his assistance. And besides, I bet he has missed a lot of Christmas days for all of the times he's been in prison, and I don't think he should miss this one." Light explained.

"You mean… we should invite him to the Christmas party?" Roll asked.

Light smiled. "With supervision, of course he can come!"

A large smile had spread across Roll's face, and immediately she had ran over to Wily and grabbed him by the arms until he had hastily stood up by force. Giggling, Roll had danced around with Wily in a circle, much to his annoyance and back pain that he suffered from this.

"L-Let go of me this instance!" Wily demanded, but Roll kept dancing with him.

And Light and Rush had both laughed. Even Dandelion Man, who was usually always glum, had laughed alongside them too. The only one who wasn't laughing was Mega Man, who felt rather confused that Wily was going to be invited to their party after his long criminal history. But as the girl robot and moustached man continued to 'dance', Mega Man couldn't help but find it funny as well and had smiled.

But the most that he was happy of, was that Dr. Light and Rush had found a solution. Sure they will miss Reindeer Man, until he is rebuilt, but they were all glad nonetheless…

* * *

The blizzard from a few hours ago had settled. In the black darkness of the night, the snow still fell heavily yet calmly, and no longer blew around in the wind. To some, it would all be a very calming and reassuring sight, especially for this miraculous night and a perfect setting for this holiday season. That is, if there were people viewing this snowy weather that made the city of Monstropolis seem more like a snow globe. Rather this cyber-punk city was fast asleep after a long day's worth of shopping for gifts at the last minute. And so the city had slept with dreams of sugar-plum fairies (or was it robotic insects?) dancing around their heads.

But little did the majority of the city know, primarily because they were so fast asleep, was that somewhere in the city, inside of a lone laboratory where plenty of music and voices could be heard, was that there were still plenty of people awake. And a lively bunch at that! In fact, it was about an hour since the clock had tolled twelve times, and the place was still bouncing.

Inside Dr. Light's laboratory, in the humongous living room which Roll had dubbed 'her ballroom', lights and trimmings had decorated the walls, the ceiling, the stair railings and even the furniture itself. The glowing light bulbs had shined in the bright colors of red and green gleefully as the celebration had continued for hours on end. Literally. Since coming home at around 9 P.M., Roll had managed to actually get the whole place cleaned up, had whipped up several tasty treats, and even invited everyone just before midnight! And of all the people invited, who was the majority of them? You guessed it, tons of Robot Masters!

A large variety of Robot Masters from over all of those long years had arrived to join Roll's big holiday bash. From old friends such as Cut Man, Ice Man, to new enemies that turned good such as Air Man to even Spring Man. There were plenty of Robot Masters here, which really started to get the whole place very crowded and noisy! Roll had practically invited almost everyone she knew, and nearly everyone had arrived. She had also invited Bomb Man and Drill Man, but for some reason they had not showed up at all. And it seemed like more and more kept coming for a good ol' time.

And they certainly kept the party busy, from every nook and corner. Star Man was complaining that he should be the one sitting on top of the tree instead of 'that pint-sized silver star', but was silenced immediately when Guts Man offered to help Star Man by jamming the tree 'up his asshole', to quote his exact wording. Meanwhile, Wood Man was standing in the corner, having fallen in love with the tree at first sight and was questioning himself whether he should go over and talk to it. Metal Man was given a gift by a friend, but unfortunately a flying saw had flew out of the wrapped box and into his head, which had made him scream in agony and run around the house. Aqua Man had volunteered to hold all of the fruit punch after Roll had ran out of bowls. Freeze Man was complaining that he was 'about to melt' and desperately wanted to get out into the snowy outside. Splash Woman was also at the party, sitting in a wading pool no less, but was learning to regret arriving, for nearly every other male robot was desperately holding up a mistletoe above her. She silently wished that Doctors Light or Wily had created more female robots over the years. And of course, there were plenty more robots where that came from.

But of course, it wasn't just the old friends who were invited, but also the new robots that everyone had grown acquainted to. Both Dandelion Man and Phone Man (who had been repaired) were both sitting in an armchair, while Dandelion Man played a Nintendo QS Lite (QS standing for 'quadruple screen') and Phone Man watched from over his shoulder.

"Jump up!… Oh, oh get that guy! No, that guy!… Look out!… Do a barrel roll!…" Phone Man coached Dandelion Man as he played.

Not everyone present was a robot however, except the majority of them were. In fact, there was really only one human being present during the entire party; Dr. Wily. He had came as offered, half expecting the 'little party' to just be a small thing where he could actually get a decent moment of rest. And instead this had happened, dozens of robots had came and quickly took up the space of well… the entire building. And he obviously was not enjoying this at all, sometimes even wishing that he was arrested again instead of being invited. But he was here, and there was really no room to even let him leave the building.

And so there he sat, in a small couch with a sour face and a cup of eggnog in his hand. But he wasn't exactly keeping to himself, as occasionally he would dart his eyes over at the blue bomber who literally stood by his side wherever the scientist had went. And even now, Mega Man was present with him and would every so often give him a few glances.

Wily was quickly becoming bothered by this, but had remained silent for most of the time.

Until he finally decided to sit up and say to Mega Man, "Do you mind leaving me alone? It's bad enough that I have put up with being pushed and shoved around constantly!"

Mega Man just smiled cheekily back at him. "Because, you might run off and cause some trouble. I'm just here to monitor your every move."

Wily grumbled in anger. This isn't his idea of celebrating Christmas.

"Will you just leave me and my eggnog alone?!" He repeated and took another sip from the cup.

"Uh, that's not eggnog. That's E Tank liquid." The boy robot pointed out.

And immediately upon hearing this, Wily had spat out the milky substance from his mouth, and had violently gagged, making it seem worse than it really was.

He soon stopped and leaned against the sofa again, uttering to himself "Ohhh… my stomach's going to be sore in the morning…"

"Not to mention that the restroom will be frequently occupied…" Mega Man had added, chuckling to himself.

"Will you get out of here?!" Wily snapped back.

Roll had then suddenly came up to the center of the room, a large smile stretched on her face. And of course, she was befittingly dressed up in a green dress that resembled a Christmas tree.

"Everyone, look! Dr. Light's finished another country and is heading to the next!" She announced as she pointed to a tall screen on the wall.

Everyone's attentions were brought up and they all turned and faced the large and wide screen, which had been showing Dr. Light riding in a brand new red sleigh, being pulled by none other than Rush. And the guests had cheered. About an hour or so before the party had begun, Dr. Light and Rush had both set out on their wintry journey after installing Rush with new, more powerful jets and refuelling him with expensive rocket fuel that lasts longer. Of course, Rush was also given 'antlers' in the form of tree twigs tied to his head as well. And ever since they had left to bring those warm smiles on the faces of children everywhere, Roll had made sure that a small, flying camera had followed them. And the entire time, it had been filming their progress and showed it live back home for everyone to watch and admire. Some were even surprised by how fast they were going around the world. Some could even say it was a Christmas miracle.

And despite the hardships of weather, time and other minor mishaps that the two had faced together, Dr. Light and Rush both still smiled and continued. Light was truly happy to be able to fulfill his goal on helping the children in his own special way, and Rush was just happy to be there helping his creator.

Rush had barked happily, hearing it echo about in the atmosphere.

And Light had laughed heartily in the most traditional way possible. "Oh ho ho ho ho ho!" His voice rang.

And he turned to the flying camera that watched him, and winked at.

"Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Happy New Year!"

And that was the Christmas tale of Mega Man and friends, and of how Rush managed to help Dr. Light with his special goal on making children grin and laugh, which they did, and very frequently. And will this tale of Rush go down in history? Perhaps not. Maybe if Rush had a shining nose and was disqualified from the 'Puppy Games', maybe. But all that mattered was that a solution had been found and that everyone became happy in the end, well maybe except for Wily.

And so, dear reader, have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

**The End.**


End file.
